The first thing I would note is that the Supreme Court of Canada itself has implemented this regime as a desirable regime in terms of assuring effective oversight. That's number one.
To respond to your points, in terms of access, I would suggest that if there is an expedited application process to the Superior Court of the province, that would then allow an expedited mechanism to proceed. You'd have a panel of judges within the court who would build up a level of expertise over time in addressing the issue. There would be a streamlined process. It would largely be dealt with based upon affidavit evidence from experts, from clinicians, and from family members and the individual. To the extent that those can be dealt with without the need for expressed oral argument, that could be addressed. Or, there are other ways it could be dealt with, through video conferencing or otherwise in appropriate cases. Where there's a challenge, then it may well be appropriate and necessary to have testimony called in order to assess.
The whole point of oversight is not simply to rubber-stamp these kinds of determinations, but rather to ensure an effective process—not an obstructive process, but an effective process—to ensure that the criteria set out either by the Supreme Court or by this Parliament are in fact respected and adhered to.
I think that can readily be done. The Supreme Court of Canada certainly felt it could be done. They've done it. I think for Parliament to simply implement what the Supreme Court has indicated would be to ensure the level of effective oversight that the court had in mind, number one; and, number two, enable the process that is now in place.
I'll note that in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario, there are specific guidelines that have been established by the courts that provide for processes in terms of addressing these applications. I would also note, on a different level, that in Ontario, for example, we have the Consent and Capacity Board.
The Consent and Capacity Board has very tight timelines. It has counsel appointed for the individuals in question where there's a consent to treatment question in dispute. The doctors attend before a tribunal member, and the witnesses attend, and these are dealt with on the kinds of determinations that Mr. Smith was talking about in the health care setting.
Now let me be clear. What we're talking about here, in my respectful view, is not health care. The intentional killing of patients by doctors is not and should not be considered to be health care. What we are talking about is a carved-out exception to the Criminal Code of Canada, as endorsed by the Supreme Court of Canada. We're not even talking about a constitutional right to die. That's not what the Supreme Court said. We're not even talking about a constitutional right to euthanasia or assisted suicide. That's not what the Supreme Court said.
What we need to do is twofold. Number one, we need to ensure an expedited process to allow for effective judicial oversight, modelled perhaps off the same model as the Consent and Capacity Board model under the Health Care Consent Act in Ontario. Number two, we need to differentiate and to carve out, if you will, the federal jurisdiction from the provincial jurisdiction.
My concern, in part, with this bill is that it's blurring the lines between federal jurisdiction over criminal law and provincial jurisdiction over health care. Care must be taken to ensure and safeguard that the acts of euthanasia and assisted suicide contemplated by this bill are deemed to be exceptions to the Criminal Code of Canada as reflected by this bill, and in fact are separated out from other health care measures that are otherwise the responsibility and purview of the provinces.