Mr. Speaker, I could have used the word “arbitrary”, and perhaps I should have said that instead of “artificial”.
It is arbitrary. There is nothing special about June 6 other than the fact that the Supreme Court said that was the day on which this part of the Criminal Code would simply cease to be in force or have effect.
The court could have acted as the American court would have done and simply said that this law had no force or effect right now, period. It could have done that, which would have produced a different legislative reaction. We would not have reacted in the haste to get legislation rammed through by a certain date if it were not for the fact that the law was not being struck down until a future specific and relative approximate date. Therefore, in that sense, it is highly arbitrary and artificial.
Throughout my comments, I have tried to indicate that I am not trying to be disrespectful either of the court or of the drafters of the current legislation. I am simply observing that we are potentially, as a system, responding in a very much sub-optimal way to the great health care issue of our time, which is the fact that we can save many lives, but we do not have the financial means to save all lives in the way we might choose to do. That is an issue that is going to confront us over and over again.