Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Do you mean a different offence that does not have the same elements? I don't see what a different offence would look like. I would say that given the legislative objective of protecting the vulnerable from being in a state of weakness, as the Supreme Court puts it in Carter, i

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  For an indictable offence, there is no time limitation as to when the alleged offence occurred. It could have been historically years earlier. For a summary conviction, or a hybrid offence that allows for the possibility of a summary election, it would have to be six months since

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Yes. Generally speaking, the summary conviction offences carry a maximum penalty of only six months' imprisonment. In some other cases, it's 18 months, but as a maximum. That's one of the major differences. It also just generally represents a less serious offence when the crown e

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Certainly.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  It sounds like an issue of sentencing, if I understand correctly. As it stands, section 241 provides a maximum sentence of 14 years. It would seem there's wide latitude in terms of the sentence available. To clarify as well with respect to using the criminal law to render physic

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Thank you. I appreciate that opportunity. We're talking about different kinds of party liability, so under section, I believe, 21—

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I'll take your word for it either way. Party liability is generally dealt with under section 21 of the Criminal Code for most offences, for example, for aiding, abetting, or encouraging an offence. There are different kinds of party liability. You can actively, just through word

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Yes, and as I mentioned, the criminal law is a heavy hammer. One might question whether it ought to be used at all. The question of counselling suicide is really a subset of homicide law. In many cases, if not most, counselling suicide is just another category of murder, withou

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Murder, yes.

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  I'm not sure I understand how that—

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  The premise of your question I think might be based on answers given by the counsel at the Department of Justice—I apologize, but I don't remember her name—who seems to equate counselling suicide with physician-assisted death, whereas euthanasia would be more tantamount to murder

Physician-Assisted Dying committee  Good evening. On behalf of the Criminal Lawyers' Association, I thank you for inviting our organization to give you our thoughts on this very important topic. Having seen the transcript of the remarks of previous witnesses, I truly feel honoured to be a member of this group of in