Thank you and good morning.
On behalf of the board of the Canadian Association of Social Workers and our provincial and territorial partner organizations, I'd like to thank this committee for choosing to hear the perspective of social work on Bill C-14.
Our organization was founded in 1926. We're the national association voice for the social work profession. We have a dual mandate to promote the profession as well as to advance issues of social justice.
I will get right to the point on Bill C-14. Although social workers will not be administering or providing a substance to cause death, it's reasonable that they would be involved in the lead-up or the consultative process leading to the decision to undergo medical assistance in dying. Social workers may also be among the care providers to whom a client would bring their end of life concerns, and may actually be the first point of contact in this regard.
As key members of interdisciplinary teams, and quite often as the only health, mental health, or helping professional in certain rural, remote, or northern contexts, social workers must be able to provide therapeutic counselling services; support to clients, their families, and even their networks; and referrals to service on the subject of medical assistance in dying. They must be able to do all of that without fear of criminal consequence.
It is very important that clients who are considering medical assistance in dying are able to bring these end of life concerns to their preferred care provider. It's equally important that care providers who are entering into these end of life discussions, or even consultations, can do so without worrying that they are going to be party to an offence.
To this end, CASW is concerned about the lack of clarity around the exemption for persons aiding a practitioner and persons aiding a patient under paragraph 241(b) of the Criminal Code, specifically as this might apply to social workers. Furthermore, Bill C-14 focuses very much on the provision—the actual act of providing or administering the substance to cause death in medical assistance in dying—with little emphasis on the process beforehand, that consultative process, the lead-up.
We're seeking further clarity on paragraph 241(a), specifically as to whether social workers who will be participating in client care leading to a decision to undergo medical assistance in dying could potentially be seen as counselling or abetting a person to die by suicide. Of course we want to avoid that.
To address this, we would recommend that C-14 be amended to clarify the meaning of “counsel”. Mental health providers like social workers provide therapeutic counselling services and engage in therapeutic conversations with their clients all the time. In this sense, “counsel” has a very different meaning from the one that's intended by paragraph 241(a). We think that this could be easily addressed by simply revising the word “counsel” in 241(a) to “persuades or encourages”, so it would read, “persuades or encourages a person to die by suicide”.
On top of that, we would also recommend creating or amending some language to provide an exemption for social workers who would be engaging with clients on the subject of medical assistance in dying, whereas “engage” could be defined as the provision of therapeutic counselling, the referral to information, supports to clients, their families, and even their broader networks, and of course, referrals to service.
This would just ensure that no social worker who engages with a person or a client on the topic of MAID, or medical assistance in dying, whether preceding or following that person's decision to undergo it, would be party to an offence under paragraphs 241(a) and (b), and equally that no social worker who aids a practitioner or patient by engaging with the person on the topic of MAID would be party to an offence.
I hope I kept that brief.
With that being said, I want to thank you again for hearing from social workers and I look forward to any questions that you might have.