Madam Speaker, there is accidental ignorance which is forgivable, and there is wilful ignorance which is less so.
The parliamentary secretary was corrected earlier in the evening on his ignorance of the policy of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. I encouraged him to use Google and read the policy where it says that physicians are required to provide effective referrals in most cases and to directly provide services in emergency situations, even if those services go against their conscience.
I referred him to the case of Nancy Naylor, a physician who had to close her practice early as a result of that policy, in combination with the medical assistance in dying law. I referred him to those cases. I have referenced them in the previous debate in 2016, and yet he repeats his demand for an example after it has already been provided.
I would encourage the member to take the opportunity to educate himself, an opportunity perhaps he has not chosen to take in the past.
I want to thank the member for his excellent speech and would just refer him as well to the testimony we heard in the previous Parliament from Dr. Alika Lafontaine, past president of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, who made many points very similar to the points he raised, specifically highlighting how indigenous people already often have negative interactions with the health care system, similar to the challenges people with disabilities face, maybe, where they are not always treated with respect in those contexts. Dr. Lafontaine said what they were looking for was not medically assisted death, it was medically assisted and supported life.