Thank you. I'm told I have two minutes, so I'll have to be brutal about what I talked about.
Before the vote, I was saying that the point of the decision in Carter v. Canada was to say that if the risk of error or abuse is low, then the autonomy claims can prevail, but the obverse of that is that if the risk of error or abuse is high, then the protection of the vulnerable prevails. My point in all of this is that I think proposed paragraphs 241.1(2)(b) and 241.1(2)(d) are consistent with section 7 of the Charter of Rights, consistent with the principles of fundamental justice, or, in the alternative, saved by section 1 of the charter.
If you take away proposed paragraphs 241.1(2)(b) and 241.1(2)(d), then the chances go way up of having somebody face premature death on the basis of a transitory wish, whereas if they'd had the opportunity over decades, they could have changed their mind, found other ways of coping with issues, found a way to make life worth living.
In section 1, the difficulty of protecting the vulnerable is an important factor. It goes beyond the individual claimant.
There are other things I could say, but I just have one final wrap-up comment.
You've heard lots of comments over the last few days to the effect that if you have the restrictions of proposed paragraphs 241.1(2)(b) and 241.1(2)(d), it's only going to produce new litigation to challenge. Yes, it's open for somebody to say, “You haven't gone far enough.” But it's important to remember my starting point; the court recognized the constitutional rights of the vulnerable. The other side of this is, if you go too far, make it too wide open, you're open to a challenge on behalf of the vulnerable. That's an interference with their constitutional rights.
If you want to charter-proof whatever you do here, the only way to do that is by using the notwithstanding clause in section 33 of the charter. I haven't heard any senator or any MP who thinks that's a good idea. There are potential challenges from both ends of the spectrum here. Your job is just to exercise your best judgment.
My submission to you is that proposed paragraphs 241.1(2)(b) and 241.1(2)(d) are important to protect the vulnerable. To include them is consistent with section 7, and would be saved by section 1 in the alternative. To exclude them increases the risk of error and abuse substantially to mean, not only would it no longer breach section 7, you'd invite a challenge from the other side of the spectrum.