Madam Speaker, the speech of my colleague from the Bloc was very passionate speech. I very much enjoyed listening to it.
When we looked at this issue in the previous Parliament, what was very clear back then was the Carter decision. What was very clear back then were the recommendations of the special joint committee. What was not very clear was why the government at the time had inserted the clause that required a reasonably foreseeable death. During my speech on Bill C-14 in 2016, I knew that clause would force us to come back and revisit this issue.
Parliament did look at this issue, we did deliberate and a number of parliamentarians at the time identified this as a problem. Then I see the Truchon decision, and that simply forces Parliament to clean up its act, to actually get the job done properly this time.
Who are we to impose our values on people who have gone through the suffering, who are being forced to live with these medical conditions? We have no idea what kind of a world they are living in. The member is very right that it is about treating their life with dignity and also allowing them to die with dignity in what is an incredibly personal choice.
I want to get my colleague's thoughts on a particular section of the bill that sets the assessment period at 90 days. For someone whose death is not reasonably foreseeable, but is facing intolerable suffering, what does he think of the 90-day period? The New Democratic caucus has already heard from physicians who have great concern that they may have to force their patients to wait an additional 90 days when it is already quite obvious the suffering is very grave.
Could my colleague provide us with his thoughts on that section of the bill?