Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will say, briefly and parenthetically, that the process by which you're giving me an opportunity to speak to my amendments is part of the motion the committee passed. This was identical to the motion developed under the previous government to deny me the rights I really want, which are to put forward amendments at report stage. Coming to committee with amendments is not the process I would have liked. As an example of why it's so impractical, I wasn't even able to get to this committee to ask that you not pass the motion, because I was simultaneously at another committee where they were dealing with the same motion.
I propose to amend the language found in clause 3, line 21, by replacing the word “counselling” with “persuades or encourages”.
I know the committee will remember the evidence from a number of groups, like the Canadian Psychological Association and the Canadian Association of Social Workers. They pointed out that using the word as it currently reads in 241(1)(a) “counsels a person to die by suicide” still makes one guilty of an indictable offence.
The Canadian Psychological Association pointed out that the word “counsel” has a specific legal and professional meaning. In their brief, they say that “mental health providers like psychologists can be said to regularly provide counselling to their patients”. In this sense, “counsel” has a different meaning than that intended by 241(1)(a).
The amendment I put to you is from their brief. The purpose is to avoid using a professional term that will be used in the course of their work to provide counselling and to replace it with the more precise term, which I think is the point of this section of the bill, namely, to ensure that anyone who persuades or encourages a person to die by suicide is not within the scope of the exceptions in the Criminal Code.