Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm Bill Adair. I work for Spinal Cord Injury Canada, which was founded in 1945 by World War II veterans who came back home to a country that expected very little from them and who dismissed the idea that they would be shut away in convalescent homes.
Our founders fought in battles overseas and then back home to provide the proof that their lives are worth living. In fact, 13 of our founders received the Order of Canada because of what they did after the war. Apparently, 72 years later, people with spinal cord injuries still need to fight to prove that their lives are worth living. It's tiring fighting for existence, but here we are.
I have worked with our SCI federation for 33 of those 72 years. Our organizations across the country support people as they adjust, adapt and thrive while living with a spinal cord injury. I have fielded requests for support for half of my life. My experience as the past chief executive officer of Spinal Cord Injury Ontario and now as the executive director of Spinal Cord Injury Canada provides me with a distinct expertise to talk about MAID and its potential impact on people with spinal cord injuries.
I'm here to speak with you about two issues, which are the 90-day wait period and the lack of real choice for persons when they are offered MAID.
The 90-day wait period is arbitrary. There are very good reasons, especially related to people with spinal cord injuries, why this wait period should be longer. A recent study found that 50% of respondents with a spinal cord injury had suicidal ideation in the first two years post-injury. Another study found that after the first year post-injury, more than 70% of people rated their life equal to or better than their life pre-injury.
From my work, I know that it can take anywhere from several months to up to seven years or more for a person to mourn their loss and accept their new life. Rehabilitation, court battles, finding accessible housing and possible work retraining can take years. Sustaining a spinal cord injury is a huge life change. While laying in bed in acute care or in rehab, a person does not possibly have all the information needed to make a life or death decision. As you know, it takes time to think about all the options, listen to people's views, and understand what resources are available and what are not. A 90-day wait is not a safeguard for the 4,000 or more people with a new spinal cord injury in Canada each year.
Imagine the loss to our society if we allow our fellow citizens to make a impulsive, uninformed decisions during the early stages of rebuilding a life that is worth living. Which one of these people could have been our next Order of Canada recipient?
My second concern is that people do not have a real choice when they request MAID. When a person discusses MAID with a doctor, they should also be offered other choices such as home services, long-term care, basic living funds, suicide prevention, psychiatric services, and safe, accessible and affordable housing. These services are not offered or they're offered, but are not available because there's a wait list, they're too expensive or they're too far away. The person isn't really being offered a choice, are they? The person is in fact being denied a choice. It's MAID or nothing.
Many people with a disability suffer because of a lack of available services and being left to live in crushing poverty, not because of their disability. In turn, the lack of available services and a life in poverty kills hope and drives people to choose MAID to end their misery. This is not the Canada that any of us want.
Here's my list of proposed solutions: Extend the wait period if a person is not at the end of life. Implement the Canadian disability benefit now. Fund trained professionals from organizations to go into health care centres to provide peer support when someone requests MAID. Build accessible, affordable housing.
As parliamentarians, you have a responsibility to change this horrible situation and to prevent it. Please give my recommendations a sober second thought.
Thank you for listening and inviting me here.