Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Honourable members and honourable Senators, thank you very much for the invitation to be here today. I'll preface my comments this morning with two thoughts. The first is that I'm aware of the difficult decisions that have to be made by patients and families in palliative situat

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Thank you for the question. My position is twofold. First of all, the idea of mature minors is, to a certain extent, oxymoronic. They require litigation guardians for all sorts of civil actions in our society, and we don't trust them to litigate on a number of issues. They're gr

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  If I understand your question correctly, you're referring to the difference between counselling a person to commit suicide and the patient asking for suicide.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Absolutely, there is a distinction. When people face hardship and extremely difficult circumstances, the suggestion that the best thing to do or that one of the options is to end their life can take roots of its own, I think. Irrespective of the reasoning behind the recommendat

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I think that such a response is effective. I think it's favourable. If it is properly implemented, I think it's the best solution.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Thank you for the question, sir. I can lean on my own experience here to say that there are doctors and there are doctors. Just as there are judges and there are judges, there are doctors and there are doctors, and when you aren't able to find medication or obtain medication fro

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Thank you for the question. I do, absolutely, and there are two components to my answer. I'll be brief. The first problem with advance consent is that if there is an issue of duress in advance, then after the person has become incompetent, you essentially can't figure that out

Justice committee  Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for having me here tonight. I'm here on behalf of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is a non-partisan, non-religious charitable organization. Our emphasis is focusing on the charter rights of Canadians, with a special

Justice committee  We say this is an unusual situation. It's important not to miss that what's happening here is the carving out of an exemption for culpable homicide. Because Parliament is carving out that exemption, we say Parliament can set the parameters with respect to who is instituting MAID

Justice committee  Without a reference to the Supreme Court of Canada, it's impossible to say entirely 100% for sure. I can't say. I feel as though I would be delving into the realm of speculation to say. Suffice it to say, I think this bill can enact protections with respect to conscience rights.

Justice committee  I would say this, that Justice Dickson at paragraph 143 in the Edwards Books decision counselled the avoidance of inquiries into people's religious beliefs. From our perspective, this doesn't have to be made to be about religious beliefs. There are long-standing beliefs, thousand

Justice committee  I think the answer to your question lies in the history of the medical profession.

Justice committee  I don't know of an analogous situation where the consequence of the act of a physician is the intended death of the patient, so there's nothing analogous I can think of. Physicians and nurses were trained and raised to care for patients and provide health care. I share the conce

Justice committee  I'm not advocating for regulating professions, but I would note that every single month there are lawyers who are disbarred for malpractice and for improprieties. It's clear from the study that was released today that whether it's intentional or accidental, the medical professi

Justice committee  Only so far, sir. Parliament decides what's criminal, and there are limits to what is in the purview of both the law societies as well as the medical professions. They have a limited mandate, whereas Parliament's mandate is much larger and broader.