Thanks, Mr. Lewis, for your questions; they're important questions.
First, let me start with the 10-day reflection period. All the work, all the family consultations, all the consultations, the assessments and the medicals have already been done. All the 10-day period was, was effectively that you've made your decision, and now you have to wait 10 days just in case you change your mind.
Universally in our consultations, medical practitioners and families told us that all this did was force people to suffer. It was a form of torture, a period in which people didn't take their medication in order to be able to make a decision after 10 days. The kinds of reflections you're referring to had already been done, so it was seen to not be necessary.
The two witnesses are just witnesses who are effectively doing a pro forma witnessing of identity. This isn't in any way medical or in any way part of the medical assessment. Again, that's already been done. All the witness is doing is saying that Mr. X is Mr. X , and that can be anybody. Again, we're told by practitioners and by families that sometimes it was an impediment. You don't need two people.
With respect to freedom of conscience, the bill enshrines freedom of conscience. No medical practitioner is forced to give the procedure in any way, shape or form, and we've protected that. It already was protected, and we further protected it back in 2016 in the legislation.
The requirement to give a referral comes from a decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario, so the courts have told us that. That's true in any medical setting in a variety of different areas, not just MAID, where there is a health care obligation to refer someone to a service so that people who have a right to a service can get it, even though the person who is referring has a freedom of conscience objection to providing that service himself or herself. There is a right to get the service, and health care services across Canada, which are provincial, have an obligation to provide that.