At the risk of appearing to be sort of ganging up, I wanted to follow up on some points that Senator Joyal made earlier. All of us are aware of the statistics on the availability of palliative care and the need for better palliative care more widely distributed across the country, but that's not the issue we are here to deal with. You have asked to come tonight to help us deal with a very specific issue, which is how we should advise the government to respond to a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada.
This has to do with assisted dying, not with the availability of other things. None of us see physician-assisted dying to be an alternative to palliative care. None of us see that.
However, if we look at the international experience with physician-assisted dying, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it seems to me that in every country where they track the numbers and the reports over the years, patients suffering from various kinds of cancers are the highest users of this option. If that's the case, it really surprises me that the Canadian Cancer Society, which has done so much good work in this area, is not prepared to come and give us some assistance in the task that we have before us.
I think particularly of advance consent and directives. I know from my experience as a lawyer the number of advance directives that I've drafted for clients who have cancer and who are concerned about the prognosis.
The Canadian Cancer Society must have thought about this. Is there no advice you can give us on the specific issues that are before us today? All of us would, I'm sure, support greater availability of palliative care, but that's not doable. We have to report to the government by the end of this month on some very specific issues. I was hoping you might be prepared to provide us with some assistance on those issues tonight.