Charlie Angus

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I think it would be incredibly irresponsible if we told the Supreme Court that we have taken our opportunity to respond to it and we are not going to do it. Is the Supreme Court going to sit around and say that is perfectly reasonable? The Supreme Court will say that we had an opportunity to draft legislation with clear rules and clear limits, and in that vacuum other decisions will be made.

There will be groups that will come forward and will challenge the Supreme Court and say that they saw the Carter decision and they do not think it goes far enough and they want to establish further rights. Those rights would be established because Parliament has made it known under the mandate. I believe that we should have had more time, but we do not have more time. If we are telling the Supreme Court that we are not going to take our responsibility here in the House to draft legislation, in that vacuum, a lot of steps are going to be taken and members of Parliament are not going to be able to do anything except get up and make their Standing Order 31 statements to rail at the Supreme Court once again.

It is our responsibility; we have that duty, and we can do it now. I would say we all work together, because we are all in this together. We have to come out with legislation. Otherwise, that vacuum is going to be, potentially, very socially difficult and maybe destructive.

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, certainly the reason we passed the palliative care strategy in the last Parliament was that one of the key first lines was to work in conjunction with the provinces and territories, but we have not seen that action. There was no action on the call for establishing the palliative care strategy. We can talk about it, but unless we establish a palliative care strategy or unless we put in the secretariat, this is just talk.

Yes, it is $3 billion, but there was nothing in the budget. There were zero dollars in the budget to deal with the shortfalls in health care.

My colleague can shake his head all he wants, but an election promise does not make palliative care. Palliative care is made by political will, and political will needs someone to stand up and say in a budget or a throne speech that we will establish that secretariat and we will make this happen.

So far, today has been the first time the Liberals have announced it. Lo and behold, guess what we are discussing. We are talking about medically assisted death and suddenly there is all this will on the other side. However, that will is the power of the government.

I would ask the Liberals, where were the dollars for health care for first nations under their jurisdiction when we got zero dollars to augment the huge shortfall? On palliative care, the Liberals can talk all they want, but they are going to have to put the structures in place and they have not done it yet.

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to take part in this debate as the representative for the people of Timmins—James Bay.

This is a historic debate for our country. The issue of medical assistance in dying is very complex and very personal. As parliamentarians, we have a duty to work together, strike a balance, respect the Supreme Court ruling in Carter, put in place the necessary protections for vulnerable individuals and seniors, and, lastly, introduce a national plan in order to guarantee access to palliative care.

At the beginning of this discussion, I think it is very important to put on the record that none of us come into this discussion with any level of moral superiority. This issue affects every single one of us. It affects our families. We cannot discuss this issue without putting it through the prism of our own personal lives and the lives of the people we know.

During this very time that the discussion has been going on, I was in the hospital with someone very close to me. The doctors said that there was nothing more to be done, they would have to go to hospice, and there were only days left. This person who is very close to me said that if they only had days, they were getting their hair done and were going to buy some nice shoes, $600 shoes. Being from a Scottish family, that was quite shocking. They said if they only had days, they were going to go out and have a nice dinner. Those days have turned into weeks.

Every day is a miracle. That is something we need to recognize. The power and the will to live is so incredible. We have to support it. We also have to recognize those who are living with intolerable pain, and be respectful of those whose hopes for the future are so crushed by debilitating illness. It puts us in a very special position, to be careful.

I want to say at the outset that I respect the importance and supremacy of the Supreme Court in our country, but I think it made a fundamental error and mistake in its treatment of the Canadian people. I think it was responding to what it felt was the last government's refusal to respond on a number of court decisions, so it put a firm timeline on Parliament to act.

It would have been fair for the Supreme Court to recognize that in October there was an election, a new mandate, and a new government. That government should have been given the opportunity to take this discussion across the country. This discussion should not be dealt with simply within this Parliament. This discussion should be a mandate that every Canadian is able to participate in. It is very unfortunate, and nobody will ever accuse me of giving the government a free pass, but the government's hands have been tied in a very unfortunate manner, in that we have to have this legislation passed by June.

For those who are very concerned about this legislation and in listening to some of my Conservative colleagues, I would warn that if Parliament does not act and if Parliament does not set the parameters for this legislation, we will then see a legal vacuum. The decisions on medically assisted death are already being made by the courts across this country. They are stepping into the vacuum that exists now.

It is incumbent upon us to respond. It is not good enough to say that we will fight this, that it is not the Supreme Court's job, and that Parliament should take back control. People can say whatever they want, but at the end of the day if we do not act by June, there will be a legal vacuum in this country. I would tell any of my colleagues who are very concerned about this legislation to just watch what happens in a legal vacuum, where others go back to the Supreme Court saying that they want to expand the rules much further.

Where does that bring us? One of my concerns is that if we are going to talk about the right that people have, the constitutional right, wherever they are in this country, to end their life if they are in medically difficult circumstances, how can we have that discussion without saying that people also have the right to quality palliative end-of-life care?

Across this country, only 16% to 30% of Canadians are able to access quality palliative care. Only six provinces have palliative care definitions under their framework. In fact, only four provinces actually even have a palliative care framework. There is a patchwork across this country.

We respect, within the House, that much of the health care services are delivered through the provinces, but the federal government has a fundamental role to play in working with the provinces. This is why the New Democratic Party pushed in the last Parliament for a national palliative care strategy, respecting the provincial and territorial jurisdictions but working to find ways of establishing proper palliative services. Pretty much every parliamentarian voted for that, yet we have seen no action. We have seen no action from the present government, which is a fundamental mistake if we are talking about having this legislation in by June.

Today is the first day I have ever heard someone from the government talk about their election promise that was supposed to be $3 billion. Well, that $3 billion is not happening now. Again, we are putting that to some time in the future. That is not acceptable. I have heard people talk about cruel limited choices and compassion, but it happens all the time. If people living in a rural area in Northern Ontario are sick, and their children live in Alberta or B.C., they have to make some pretty tough decisions on their own. I have dealt with them in my office, and that lack of access to quality palliative care is heartbreaking.

The New Democratic Party has pushed Motion No. 46 in this new Parliament, which calls for the establishment of a pan-Canadian palliative end-of-life strategy. It has already been supported by Parliament, but we have not seen any action on it. We are asking for that to be moved now, to re-establish the secretariat on palliative and end-of-life care, with dedicated funding. That could have been done in this budget and it could still be done now to implement a national awareness campaign on end-of-life care so that people can have this discussion. I have been hearing lots of talk about how important it is to have this discussion in the House, but the federal government can play a role in furthering the discussion.

The other area is EI benefits for compassionate care so that people are able to look after their loved ones. Finally, there is a huge area of jurisdiction under the federal government, where it delivers health services to indigenous people, people in the military, and people in prisons.

Section 12.1 under the federal health act says that under no circumstances whatsoever, when someone is dying on a reserve and is being flown out for their final hours, will their spouse be allowed on the plane with them. They are to die alone. Under section 12.1 of these standards, it says it cannot be appealed. The first rule in the health standards says under no circumstances will compassion be accepted. That could be changed tomorrow. The health minister could stand up and say it is an unacceptable, cruel standard that the federal government would allow an elderly person to die alone without their life partner there, and that they would have written into the legislation that under no circumstances would compassion be considered a reason for letting someone be with them when they die. What kind of nation are we, if we think that is a perfect bureaucratic standard? It is not.

Therefore, if we are going to have this discussion about allowing people with incurable suffering to make that choice, and if we are going to make it available nationally, then it is incumbent upon the House to say that every family that has a loved one who is suffering will have the support they need, because how we come through death as a family is how we find ourselves. We either come out through these deaths stronger and closer together, or sometimes we see families breaking apart because of the strain that is put on them by a system that has failed them again and again, and when they needed it in the most vulnerable moment in their lives.

I am asking my colleagues. We could rise to a higher level in the House. We could rise to what we are called to do, which is to establish a vision for our nation. This is an opportunity, but it is going to have to move beyond simply this legislation. It is going to have to be done in conjunction with a plan for palliative care across the country.

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Madam Speaker, it was very unfortunate that my colleague invoked the name of young Sheridan in the House in this debate. She did not die because she was suffering from an incurable illness like Lou Gehrig's disease. She died because of lazy indifference from federal and provincial officials, from poverty, and the fact that we do not have mental health workers. It took months to get her body home through the bureaucratic red tape, as the family could not deal with the trauma.

What we are dealing with here is our obligation before the Supreme Court. This is our job. However, it is extremely dangerous and unprofessional to invoke the suffering of those children as a way to say that we are not doing our job here.

We have a job to do before the Supreme Court, but we also have a job for those children, so a young child like Sheridan will never ever be denied mental health services because some official says we will not give it to them, or that they are going to have to live in a squalid shack because some official will not sign off on the housing agreements. Those are fundamentally different.

Knowing the family and what these children have gone through, it is very unfortunate that my colleague has used those stories to somehow conflate these two issues, which are fundamentally different.

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Madam Speaker, I have been listening with great interest, and this is a profound discussion that we are having tonight. The issue in terms of what people are able to access at end of life has been put before this House, not simply because of the Carter decision and not because of, as some colleagues have said, a narrow rewriting of the legislation. However, if we are going to rewrite this legislation, we have to deal with the huge shortfalls in end-of-life care for those who are wanting to live—the palliative-care needs of the sick and their families. Yet only 16% to 30% of Canadians are able to access quality palliative care. Only four provinces even have a palliative-care framework. It is the responsibility of the federal government to work with the provinces, and also to put the money on the table to say that palliative end-of-life choices are going to be available. However, we saw zero money in the budget from the current government.

If this bill is going to be in place in June, we are going to be in a situation in Canada where people will have technically the right to end their life if they are facing intolerable suffering, but they will not also share the same right to access quality health care for their family if they are living in under-serviced areas and patchwork areas. I am asking why the current government has not stepped forward in advance of this legislation to start dealing with the huge shortfalls we are facing in palliative care.

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Madam Speaker, one of the concerns we have as New Democrats is the issue of finding a balance on this legislation.

It was put forward and put upon the House by the Supreme Court. It has laid down a set of rules that we have to respond to, but if we are to move in that direction, the obvious question is, where are the standards for palliative care across this country?

There are many areas under provincial jurisdiction, but the federal government plays an important role in the delivery of health care and the federal government also has a major responsibility in areas of its own jurisdiction, and we have seen a lack of action.

We moved through the last Parliament a national palliative care strategy, but we saw no movement from the government in the budget. We are now hearing on this day that we are discussing medically assisted death that they will come forward at some point with all kinds of money, but there is nothing there now.

We have Motion No. 46 that will be coming before the House about establishing a coherent national palliative care strategy, working also to improve the EI benefits for caregivers so that families are given support, and also calling on the federal government to establish standards under federal jurisdiction.

I ask my hon. colleague what he believes the role of this Parliament is on moving forward with palliative care at this important time.

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague. I think what is disturbing me in the tone of the debate today is that there is an impression being created by the Conservatives that somehow the great moral crusade here is to actually defy the Supreme Court ruling. The Supreme Court ruling made a decision that has really tied the hands of Parliament. I may not agree with how it arrived at it or I may not agree with the fact that it has limited our ability to consult with Canadians, but one thing I am very aware of is that this right already exists now. It is already being practised by the courts, and if Parliament does not frame clear legislation with clear limits, there will be a legal vacuum come this summer in which the fears that my Conservative colleagues are raising may well be much more realized by other parties who step forward and go to the Supreme Court to say Parliament has failed in its fundamental duty to act.

Given the constraints put upon us by the Supreme Court, I would like to ask my hon. colleague what he feels will happen if Parliament does not come up with this bill to meet the timeline of the Supreme Court and leaves that legal vacuum that would exist across this country?

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague.

My concern with the lack of action on palliative care is that there was zero dollars in the budget. We have a promise now, but that is another year lost. I find it extraordinary to be talking about the right to die, but not the right to quality palliative care and the role the federal government has to play.

The other area that concerns me is the federal government has major health responsibilities in the delivery of health services to the military, the federal penitentiaries, and indigenous people. Yet, under section 12.1 of the first nations non-insured health benefits, when people are dying and have to be taken out of a reserve for palliative treatment, their loved ones are not allowed to go with them.

It says in federal regulations that the first reason to deny loved ones to be with their spouse at the end of life is compassion. Compassion is the number one rule for denying loved ones a chance to have palliative care. If the Liberals are serious about ending these cruel choices, they will tell that health minister to change the wording in the health guidelines now, so loved ones are never separated at the time of death.

[Criminal Code, May 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague. I find it very unfortunate, though, to use the suffering of the children in Attawapiskat in this debate.

I have heard it used by some people in the faith community. I find that it is a real debasement of the issue because of what the children are suffering there, with the lack of basic mental health services from the federal government, the intergenerational trauma of the residential schools, and the churches just walking away from their legal obligations.

Edmund Metatawabin, a survivor of St. Anne's Residential School, who knows these families well says that there is a direct highway between the injustice committed by the federal government and the effect it is having on these children. I can tell my colleague, being in the community, I hear that. I respect his judgment on many things and I am just asking that we be careful when we bring in something tied to this.

My concern in listening to my hon. colleague is that I do believe it is the role of Parliament to offer legislation on what is the right of life and death in this country, but the Supreme Court decision is acted.

I think it is incumbent upon us to be truthful with the Canadian people that if Parliament does not respond to this legislation, it will create a legal vacuum, and in that legal vacuum, all manner of agents may step forward, may be heard, and may be recognized by the Supreme Court. It is not enough to say that we can push back against the Supreme Court. If we do not meet this deadline, then a legal vacuum will ensue and much broader interpretations may result.

[Indigenous Affairs, May 2nd, 2016]

Mr. Speaker, the Human Rights Tribunal has made it clear that it is fed up with the government's inaction on dealing with the issue of racial discrimination against indigenous children. It points out that the Liberal budget failed children in the area of child welfare. The government continues to deny medical services to children and fights their families in court.

The tribunal has effectively put indigenous affairs under third party management because it simply does not trust the government. To the Prime Minister, as the minister of youth, will he respect this ruling and if so, what are the immediate steps the government will take to end the systemic discrimination against indigenous children in this country?