Thank you.
Anastasia's law is groundbreaking in Canada, and Quebec should be congratulated for bringing it forward.
As I said in response to a previous question, there are requirements for confidentiality with respect to what we learn in a doctor-patient relationship, and there are limited specific exclusions where we can breach that confidentiality. Anastasia's law provides for those. In many of the situations where we think that would be appropriate, it is not available in other jurisdictions.
We think this is an important aspect of it, this federal legislation with the improvements that we suggest, but it will need to be followed up with provincial changes to allow for that specific release of the confidentiality requirement.
The other aspect of Anastasia's law that has been unfortunate and disappointing is its limited effectiveness because of, we feel, two aspects. One is that not enough education has been done of the public and of medical practitioners on Anastasia's law existing. As well, there is the under-resourcing of the police, such that they are not always able to adequately respond when such notice is given to them. I think these are some areas for potential improvement and synchronization between federal law and the provincial jurisdictions.