Thank you, Madam Chair.
As a lawyer and former president of the Living With Dignity network, I thank you for giving us this opportunity to share some observations. I will be very brief, as everything else is provided in our brief.
The Living With Dignity network was founded in 2010. This is a citizen network of over 5,000 allies that is closely following the evolution of end-of-life care in Quebec and in Canada. We have been there for all the stages, including the latest cases such as Lamb and Truchon.
Unfortunately, since the provisions on medical assistance in dying came into force in 2015 in Quebec, and in 2016 in the rest of Canada, we have been seeing increased relaxing of the safeguard measures, be it stemming from court rulings or the interpretation of those who implement medical assistance in dying.
We understand that the Government of Canada must now amend its legislation, but Bill C-7 goes much further by making numerous changes to safeguards that had, however, been deemed necessary in June 2016. I feel it is really dangerous and rushed to do this right now, during a pandemic, when the consequences of the current safeguards have not been analyzed in the review of current legislative provisions, which should begin soon. So we are asking that those safeguards be kept for everyone who is at the end of their life.
Concerning provisions that affect those who are not at the end of their life, we have heard the message from the entire community of persons with disabilities and their advocacy groups. They raised the same issue on Bill C-14 when the Senate proposed removing the end-of-life criterion. They are mostly ignored now, given the proposed amendments.
It is hard to understand how the federal Parliament can adopt the proposed measures, which would make Canada the most permissive country in that area, while making fine statements of principle in the preamble of Bill C-7, as it had done in the preamble of Bill C-14.
Finally, given certain court rulings that have undermined caregivers' conscientious objection, especially in Ontario, it would be desirable for the current legislative provisions to be strengthened to clearly stipulate that nothing in this bill can force anyone not only to practise medical assistance in dying or to assist someone in that practice, but also to refer an individual who is asking for medical assistance in dying to a colleague who does provide that service.