Thank you.
I want to speak in support of this amendment. I recall that during testimony, Dr. Heidi Janz, who is with the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, gave testimony. She's a medical doctor herself, I believe. She was in a wheelchair. She referred to this as norm-shattering legislation.
I feel sometimes, when we're debating back and forth, that we're getting into a flavour of “this is not that big a deal”. It is a very, very big deal. That's why it's in the realm of criminal law. That's why we can't take it lightly. For the very reason we have laws around capital punishment, where long ago Canadians said we're not going to have capital punishment anymore, which I agree with, was that even if, after some heinous act, it would seem that maybe the state should put someone to death, if we should put to death just one innocent person who turned out to be innocent later or was improperly convicted, that would be a terrible thing.
This is very important legislation. This is a modest amendment. I believe the 90-day provision, as far as I know, is basically an arbitrary number. I'm happy to hear from my Liberal colleagues if it's otherwise, but from what I've heard in testimony before us, it's basically an arbitrary number. We are suggesting 120 days. It's not a big difference, but the difference would allow people contemplating this to have enough time to make sure that they are fully aware of the availability of support, that they have access to care, that they know what care they have access to, and that they have at least the chance to access quality palliative care. We've heard testimony that 70% of Canadians do not have adequate access to palliative care. Maybe they can access this by going somewhere different, or to the next county or next town—I don't know—but it takes time to figure those things out.
I would be very concerned to think that anyone makes these decisions based on inadequate support or not having the appropriate care in a timely enough fashion. We don't like to think that happens, but we know it does happen. We've had people who have been in the news. It's been a matter of comment and a matter of testimony that there are some people who have in fact chosen MAID because they felt they had a lack of care and they weren't sure how to access it or where to get it.
One of the submissions that we were sent happens to be from the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. I should say off the top that I'm not Catholic, but what was said in here seems to me to be very telling:
The pastoral experience of the Bishops has shown that patients are more likely to request...assisted suicide when their pain is not properly managed by good quality palliative care, when their dependence on others to provide assistance and support is not adequately met, or when they are socially marginalized. Palliative care, which has yet to become fully available and accessible in our own country, offers a compelling answer—the only respectful, comprehensive and ethical alternative to what the Government is trying to address through [this] legalization....
I'm paraphrasing here and shortening it a bit. They said that palliative care seeks to alleviate the pain, loneliness, fear, distress, and despair, which [Technical difficulty—Editor] where no such emotional and psychological support is available, to the tragic failure that the option or choice ends up with assisted dying.
Also, the stress here on the COVID-19 pandemic has painfully revealed that fear, distress and despair are not uncommon realities among our fellow Canadians and family members in assisted living and seniors residences. We all know that COVID-19 has disproportionately hurt and disproportionately affected our fellow Canadians in seniors residences. We know. We have stories. We have testimony. We have testimony from military personnel who went in to assist, which was, I think, a very good initiative of the government. They found some of our seniors in deplorable conditions. The distress and the isolation it causes can lead people to make these choices when they might not otherwise.
The 120 days is meant, in my view, to allow the full complement of what might be available so we know that when people are making these decisions they're not doing it prematurely. They're not doing it because of lack of access to care. They're doing it because their situation is truly intolerable, and they've then made a conscious decision to access this end of life. However, it should never be because they haven't yet had a chance to do that. The 120 days just gives them a little more of a chance.
We've heard testimony that there is all kinds of support—health care support, emotional support and otherwise—that is not available within the 90 days. We've also heard testimony that 90 days is a turning point—I think MP Cooper referred to this—often after a catastrophic illness or injury when people can start to accept. Let's give them that chance.
Thank you, Madam Chair.