Justice committee  There is jurisprudence under the Criminal Code that has interpreted the concept of abetting an offence to take place. Though in the dictionary definition “abetting” can mean “aiding” and also “encouraging”, the interpretation that the courts have most consistently given to the wo

Justice committee  They're definitely quite similar concepts. There is a definition of “counselling” in section 22 of the Criminal Code, I believe, which contains some more verbs and concepts that are quite similar to “counselling”. Counselling might require something a little more pointed than enc

Justice committee  I think we have to read the provisions of the legislation consistently with each other. If we look at the definition provided of “medical assistance in dying” in proposed section 241.1, it's actually a defined term in the legislation. It makes it a lot easier to draft the rest of

Justice committee  Our understanding based on the court ruling of the circumstances of Kay Carter was that she was in a wheelchair and needed assistance for most of her daily functions, so her mobility was quite limited. It's not really a provision of paragraph (b) that speaks to there being a cha

Justice committee  I would like to provide the committee with a little bit of context that may be of use with regard to the provisions on self-defence, which actually were amended by Parliament just a few years ago. It's the one defence, actually, at present, that can be invoked when a person is ch

Justice committee  Yes, reasonableness is always in the circumstances that the person found them in. The question is, imagine another reasonable person in those circumstances, would they have formed the same belief?

Justice committee  “Counsels” is a word that's been part of the criminal law for decades, if not centuries. There is a definition of “counsels” in section 22 of the Criminal Code that applies throughout the code, so it's also not a word that is limited to being used in the context of section 241. I

Justice committee  Well, there are a couple of things for the committee's consideration, again. One, if we think about the exemptions that have been created for people who might aid the physician or the nurse practitioner, it was drafted to say “any person” because there might be other types of pr

Justice committee  Yes, “information on the lawful provision of medical assistance in dying”.

Justice committee  I will start by saying that the way I think we would read this is that it would set as the default mode of medical assistance in dying the self-administration by everyone who is capable. Then, for those who are not physically capable, the administration of the substance by the pr

Justice committee  A qualified medical practitioner is a term that's in the impaired driving provisions of the Criminal Code. These are people, I think, who can do the Breathalyzer or something related to taking breath samples. It's defined as a person duly qualified by provincial law to practise

Justice committee  The ministers explained that the objective of the choice that was made was to enable people who are suffering while in decline on a trajectory towards death to have a peaceful method of dying. That being the case, there are choices about how the legislature could describe or def

Justice committee  To advise the committee, from a drafting perspective, we've been reassured numerous times by the legislative drafters that this is not legally necessary. The only thing I would mention is that consideration would have to be given to the French version because if we add “only”, i

Justice committee  It doesn't match the French under 241(2)(1) that's all.

Justice committee  That's fine.