Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I am very happy to be here today. My name is Gabriel Miller. I'm the director of public issues for the Canadian Cancer Society here in Ottawa. I'm joined today by my colleague and our assistant director, Kelly Masotti. I'll be delivering our ope

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Based on everything I've read about this, I think it makes a great deal of sense to say that palliative care needs to be available and that it needs to be an option in any scenario where assisted death is made available. I would only go a step further to say that we need to thin

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I think I can speak on behalf of the organization on this point and say that we need national guarantees in terms of what Canadians can expect to receive in end-of-life care and a common set of standards and definitions around the terms we're using, so that there is a comparable

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I heard a similar question put to the minister by the media. I thought she did a pretty good job of handling the question, so I'll borrow from her. I don't think anyone would want the conversation to begin with ultimatums being issued by one order of government to another on this

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I won't speak to the question of where, because I wouldn't be speaking for anyone expect for me, and that's of no use to you whatsoever, I promise you. Our view is that end-of-life care needs to be considered to be medically necessary care. We have a principle in this country th

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I have an answer to your question. I'm not sure it's going to satisfy you, but we'll find out. The cancer society in Quebec has had quite a bit to say about the process there. The organization has been very involved in these discussions right along and has expressed strong supp

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Thanks for that question. I hadn't even considered the confusion between palliative care and assisted dying. We have confusion within the country just on competing definitions of palliative care. This is tremendously important, because of course if we're talking about rights a

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  That's correct.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Of course.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I can only make some observations based on.... I've been there only a little while, so I'll play that card to protect myself a little bit on this question.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I'll wait until I'm a senator.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I have to be honest with you. My best guess, from what I've seen, is that there was a lot of concern about the potential for the issue to divide people. Obviously, when you count on donations, you worry about how your supporters will feel. However, I think there's also genuine am

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Why don't I speak first about the impact of a lack of palliative care on any patient? Then we can talk a bit more about how it might affect someone facing that issue. Palliative care is care that's designed to protect the quality of life of the patient and their family. It's eas

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Sure. The professor may have more to add, or corrections to make, to my response. We take a broader view of palliative care in that we really believe it needs to begin as soon as someone is diagnosed with a critical illness. Palliative care is the care that's focused on and pre

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Yes.