Mr. Speaker, the minister in her comments said that nothing in the bill compels health care professionals to participate in assisting with a death. She also stated there is a federal interest in ensuring that nobody is denied access to medically assisted death. This raises a problem. A charter right to something cannot be withheld by someone else who is either a government agent, or is operating within the purview of a set of rules that gives them a monopoly over providing access to that right.
The minister could correct this problem. It will essentially cause the courts to require health care professionals to provide assisted death against their own consciences and will, unless the following change is made. She could add a specific protection to the law that would meet the section 1 charter requirement. It says that the rights and freedoms set out in the charter are subject only to “such reasonable limits prescribed by law”, which means statute, “as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society”.
If the minister did that, there will be protection for physicians. If not, it is only a matter of time before the courts require physicians to provide assisted death. That will result in terrible crises of conscience for physicians who would not want to do that based on their profoundly held moral beliefs.