I would like to begin by thanking you, Chair, for an excellent job as chair of this committee. I see nodding around the room. I think you did an excellent job.
I must regretfully agree for different reasons that I cannot support this bill.
I believe this bill to be unconstitutional. I take that on the basis of advice we have received from eminent lawyers from coast to coast, from the Canadian Bar Association, from the Quebec bar association, and my own understanding of constitutional law. I believe that to have defined “grievous and irremediable medical condition” as this bill does not only flies in the face of the recommendation of the special joint committee that recommended that we not do that; I believe it fundamentally undercuts the victory that people achieved in the Supreme Court of Canada in the Carter case.
I do not believe this bill to be either Carter-compliant or charter-compliant. As a lawyer, I am simply unable to support a bill that I believe to be fundamentally unconstitutional.
Thank you.