Thank you, Madam Chair.
A couple of my points were made by others and I promise I won't remake them. I do want to respond to MP Garrison, who mentioned that assessors and providers of MAID are in favour of waiving the 10-day reflection period.
Consultation went into Bill C-14. We were supposed to have a parliamentary legislative review this past summer that would look back on what the Canadian experience has been in dealing with assisted dying. Based on consultation on Bill C-14 and based on international norms, Parliament put in a 10-day reflection period that could be waived when appropriate.
Now the Liberal government has put in a 90-day reflection period when death is not reasonably foreseeable, but we'll get to that later. This 10-day reflection period is important. Mr. Garrison mentioned individuals who, on the 11th day, received MAID. That's not taking into account the people who, within that reflection period, decide not to go through with MAID.
As Mr. Cooper pointed out, this happens, and we have to give people that opportunity if we believe that life is important and every life is important, as we heard from individuals in the persons with disabilities community. I felt the value of their lives as they presented at our committee. Their perspective is important. Their lives are important.
We know overwhelmingly that people can and do change their mind about assisted death. It happens. This has been characterized as people who have days or weeks or hours to live. That is not what this is about. This is about, in some cases, people who could have years to live.
The least we can do as a safeguard.... We're putting in place this regime. Everywhere else has safeguards. We need to have safeguards. This was a safeguard that was seen as appropriate just a few years ago. This is not something new. This is something that existed in the previous legislation and we want to make sure we maintain that.
We can talk about assessors and providers of MAID. Well, I'm also talking about the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. I'm talking about the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians. These are physicians who deal, day in and day out, with end-of-life issues. Those physicians are saying to maintain this 10-day reflection period. I don't know how we as a committee can just ignore that and cherry-pick the odd thing that we agree with from people who have a completely different perspective, being the assessors and providers of MAID. Maybe the assessors and providers of MAID should not be the ultimate authority on all things dealing with MAID, including the safeguards and the 10-day reflection period.
We need to have a balanced approach. We've listened to the assessors and providers. I also want to listen to people with disabilities, other specialists and palliative care physicians. We cannot make this a closed club where the only people we listen to are the ones who provide MAID. That is not how this does work and it's not how it should work.
I'll leave it at that, Madam Chair. I thank everyone for their contribution to the discussion on this amendment.