Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you. I've watched every hour of the AMAD committee thus far. Up until today, committee members have disputed the truthfulness of stories that have been shared by witnesses who have come forward and said that MAID professionals are beyond question. Consistently, there has been talking on top of experts who have been warning about caution and even questioning their integrity.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I'm so sorry, I'm struggling. I don't know that there's any consensus on this issue. I am saying that Susan MacDonald and other people at the committee said that it should be part of informed consent, and I'm saying that's a very dangerous principle to apply when we know that there's discrimination in health care, like the B.C. report, “In Plain Sight”, demonstrates.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I really wouldn't, so I can't answer the question. I'm sorry.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I'm so sorry Senator Kutcher; I don't know what you're talking about.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Again, through you, Mr. Chair, Senator Kutcher, I don't actually know. I'm not an academic family physician; I'm a family physician who works, really, on the margins. I do connect with other family doctors who work in marginalized communities. We are all concerned about this. I have no idea, and I can't comment on the consensus of family doctors.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I will try my best, and thank you for the question. Through Mr. Chair, I would say that I also did home care for people with severe mental health addictions, dementia and disabilities in Montreal before I relocated to London. Many, many times I've accompanied people through suffering—medical and psychosocial suffering—and they were able to overcome this and be super happy to be alive.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, for the question. First, to touch on what you were asking about that case with negligence, possible discrimination and a longer admission than they wanted or anticipated, I think it raises a really problematic issue. Abby Hoffman came to this committee and said that there are no cases, or hardly any cases, of non-compliance.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  If you heard me in Bill C-7, I proposed several safeguards, including never raising it with a patient, as they do in Australian legislation. People should be able, in their professional integrity, to decline things. For scientific data, for example, with patients with disabilities, where we know the outcome takes years, there was an MP Green who tried to put forward an amendment to make sure that psychosocial issues were not the reason people were getting MAID.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I did send a brief on May 6, and it is still not up in the written testimony.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I can resend you my testimony on Bill C-7, if it's helpful, Madam Chair.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  This is my own patient, whom I love very much, and I asked her permission to tell her story today. She actually said, as did every single contact in every story I shared, that she is willing to talk to this committee. I've also emailed the chairs with other stories that I couldn't fit in here.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Okay. I will try to be very, very quick. I have actually reviewed this medical chart and met with the family myself. The family relates that there was severe humiliation that he endured [Technical difficulty--Editor]

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Oh, sorry. Is something wrong?

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Basically, I talked to the family. I reviewed the medical chart myself. He was being humiliated by staff. They would leave the windows open, complain when they had to change him. He couldn't get in touch with his family that often. He would go hungry when they cleared his food trays.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Mr. Cooper, just to clarify, it was actually more recent than that, but should have fallen under track two under the Bill C‑7 regime. This patient did not have any terminal comorbidities and was not dying from his stroke. As is normal custom when someone has a stroke and has difficulty swallowing, we progress their diet slowly to avoid aspiration—pneumonia and things like this—and he did not choke or aspirate before he died.