Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for his speech, and particularly for having the courage to share some of his personal story and interactions with dying. These personal stories help us to add context. Unfortunately, because of the lack of palliative care that we have in this country, there are many cases where a person may think or be told that their pain is not manageable when in fact their pain is manageable.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I believe that at the beginning of his comments my hon. friend talked about what dignity is and said that dignity is up to the individual to decide. If you decide you have dignity, then you do, and perhaps if you decide you do not have dignity, then you do not. I find this definition rather troubling.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. member respectfully engaged in some obvious sleight of hand with respect to the conscience provisions that are not in this legislation. He has said that it is a misconception to say that this legislation does not address conscience, but then he says there is nothing in the legislation that would directly infringe conscience.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, with respect to palliative care, one of the proposals we have heard is to have a right to palliative care put into this legislation. We could not fully operationalize it today, but we could introduce a right that people could expect to have. That would fit really well with this.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, as a follow-up to my previous question, to put a finer point on it, the current policy of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario is to require referral if something falls within the standard of care, or in an emergency or urgent situation, to actually require the provision of that service.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, it is good to hear the member talk about how she sees the protection of conscience as very important, but I would simply ask, why not protect it in the legislation? There is, of course, a precedent for this. We have talked about the Civil Marriage Act including protection for conscience at the federal level.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, the member talked about the possibility of amendments. I would like to suggest one amendment and hear his comments on it. We have these criteria in the bill, but the criteria only mean something if there is some kind of assessment in advance. If the only assessment of each case is retrospective, then there is very little way of adjudicating if someone is actually meeting the criteria.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, based on what the member and others have said, it seems there is a consensus emerging, at least from the different opposition parties, about the need to have clearer and better protection of conscience. The Liberals say this is important to them. Why not put it in the legislation, exactly as the member talked about, using the model of the Civil Marriage Act?

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, the member wrapped up by referencing opinion polls. Of course, we know Canadians support strong safeguards, including conscience protection. There will be some form of assisted suicide in this country going forward, but Canadians want to see us do the hard work of putting in safeguards.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I enjoyed listening to the member's speech. She did something interesting at the beginning where she referenced her personal religious beliefs coming from the Abrahamic tradition. We have heard a number of Liberal members reference their personal religious beliefs, but then also say that they are going to have to in some way park those beliefs.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I want to underline that there has been some discussion here about psychological suffering. The legislation very clearly includes psychological suffering as a criterion and subsection 241.2(2) talks about physical or psychological suffering being a criterion. The member, quite rightly, illustrates how having these provisions could create a more permissive environment for suicide more generally.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, this member and the previous member referred to the “flexibility” of this legislation. Flexibility may be a good quality to have at a dinner party, but it is not much of a virtue in the context of legislation. Flexibility does not help physicians who are going to have to look at this legislation and decide if something is legal or not.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I want to pick up on the question of advance consent, because it has come up a number of times today. What we heard from the special committee, at least from those who are involved in health care or represent those who are involved in health care, is that it is very difficult to have an advance directive about a very hypothetical situation in which a people do not actually know how they will experience what they will be going through.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her remarks. The member for Parkdale—High Park, I believe it was, is quite correct to say that this legislation would create one of the most permissive euthanasia regimes in the world. That is certainly what I understood him to say, and I think that would be quite correct.

Criminal Code  Mr. Speaker, the member concluded by asking that we update the law to reflect 21st-century realities. By my count, this is the third issue on which the government is using an argument of dates to demonstrate a particular legislative opinion. We need more than just the dates. With respect to the legislation before us, I have advocated for two changes.