Mr. Speaker, I will offer a clarification and then pose a question.
The clarification is that I do not think it is accurate to construe this as an offer to provide MAID. In track two a written request is made, then a 90-day assessment period takes place. During the course of that 90-day assessment, information about both palliative care and counselling needs to be provided, and it needs to be considered before MAID is actually delivered.
The point I want to make is a point that was made repeatedly by the courts, and it is about listening to persons with disabilities. The theme of the remarks are clear. The people who were listened to in the court were two people with disabilities, Mr. Truchon and Ms. Gladu.
Also, another vocal proponent for persons with disabilities Mr. Steven Fletcher, a former federal Conservative cabinet minister, said that it is condescending to not provide people with disabilities the same right under the same rules as everyone else to decide when their suffering has become intolerable. He said that there is a huge range of disabling conditions and no one, including disability rights groups, can decide for someone else what is tolerable.
I wonder if the member opposite would comment on the different perspectives amongst persons with disabilities on how we fulfill the duty to provide them with autonomy and the ability to give consent.