What concerns me is that we are placing the burden on people who are already struggling with an illness, and that they are left to defend themselves before the Supreme Court. From the outset, this is how Canadian law has developed on the issue of medical assistance in dying.
Parliamentarians have never taken an approach like that in Quebec, for example, where they took two years to pass a law and took the time to listen to everyone.
Here, we are told: this is the Supreme Court’s deadline. Since parliamentarians have not done their job, the Court is telling them to do so and to ensure that an amendment to the Criminal Code is introduced that complies with the Charter.
The burden of having to appear before the Supreme Court is being placed on the patient, and that, in my view, is unacceptable.