Justice committee  Well, irrespective of the form of government, the fact of the matter, in my opinion, is.... This witness is a counsel, and I used to be a counsel, and you cannot foreclose a defence argument in the future on any legislation under the Criminal Code, because it's subject to the cha

Justice committee  With the greatest respect, if you look at the preamble of the Charter of Rights and find out how the courts have used those words in the opening comments, you'll find that it's a nice statement, a flowery statement, but in terms of effect, it doesn't have much, in the actual inte

Justice committee  The way it's open-ended now, if you look at those provisions under this Bill C-14, and if you look at the offences that are created because of this, if you don't notice, if you don't do that, you're subject to a criminal charge, and then of course when you're subject to a crimina

Justice committee  Just look at the offences you've created under this bill. I'm not going to go into a debate. There are offences created under this legislation. For example, proposed section 241.3 is one that is an offence because you're creating a hybrid offence. It could be an indictable offenc

Justice committee  Look at the section under what you're contemplating as regulations, proposed subsection 241.31(4). If there is a regulatory scheme that's going to be set up, or whatever this is going to look like, if you don't refer a patient to somebody else, or you don't even want to do that,

Justice committee  You're thinking of the type of government we have in this country as distinct from those in other countries.

Justice committee  I assume that the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience is going to appear here. Here's what they said: No other foreign jurisdiction in the world that has legalized euthanasia/assisted suicide forces health care workers, hospitals, nursing homes or hospices to act against th

Justice committee  Thank you very much for that—

Justice committee  My memory goes back to the original charter that was being drafted in the 1980s, and the discussions that would have occurred then; and the notwithstanding clause was put in there for a purpose. I remember specifically why it was put in there: in order to make sure that this woul

Justice committee  Thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to be here with honourable members on this matter that is very important to our country as well as here in Ottawa. I filed my submission, and the three areas I addressed are the sanctity of life, palliative care, and freedom of c