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Medical Assistance in Dying committee Well, to elaborate I would simply say that we know the rates of mental health challenges are extremely high among children with disabilities, and we also see those kinds of rates of struggle with respect to first nations kids living off reserve. We know that these populations wil
November 4th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Medical Assistance in Dying committee First, in terms of B.C. legislation, I don't know every province's variations. I do believe that decisions to get treatment are treated differently in law than decisions that result in end of life. For example, in the situation you mentioned, if a parent disagreed with the assess
November 4th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Medical Assistance in Dying committee First, I'd say it's not discriminatory to exclude certain groups from MAID. We limit certain medical procedures to different age groups based on the risks. For this group, a lack of understanding of their fulsome future horizons, which is tied to the fact that their brains are st
November 4th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Medical Assistance in Dying committee I guess that depends on what you're talking about in terms of consent. If we're talking about medical treatments, the more serious the consequences of a treatment, the less likely it is that a court is going to say that a young person has the capacity. We can't really talk about
November 4th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Medical Assistance in Dying committee No, I don't agree. I think there's a substantial difference between withholding or ceasing treatment and the act of intervention of the state, with its resources, to end a life. I think we know that MAID is an exception to Criminal Code provisions that criminalize murder and assi
November 4th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Medical Assistance in Dying committee Thank you, Mr. Chair. As mentioned, I'm a professor emerita at the University of Ottawa, where I taught criminal law and procedure for 34 years. I'm also the sister of Matthew, who has developmental disabilities and some physical disabilities. I have first-hand experience with t
November 4th, 2022Committee meeting
Professor Elizabeth Sheehy
Justice committee It seems to me that extreme intoxication will be available for drug-induced psychosis, from what I can tell. I'm not sure if I am answering your question.
October 27th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Justice committee I'm sorry. I guess I don't understand the context of his remarks. Is he suggesting that the new legislation is too narrow or that our understanding of the defence of extreme intoxication is too narrow?
October 27th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Justice committee Well, I guess I can only repeat what I said, which is that I believe that drug-induced psychosis—because it does involve a break from reality—has the potential to be the basis for an extreme intoxication defence. I think the case law may be evolving to accommodate his concern tha
October 27th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Justice committee The hope would be that any of those amendments would change the worrisome spectre of prosecutions being dropped. This is not an exact science, obviously, drafting legislation and expecting to produce particular results. I think it's fair to assume that a change in the legal stand
October 27th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Justice committee Some of this is a policing issue. As you know, we have a very widespread, profound and persistent problem of police unfounding of sexual assault in Canada. The rates in some jurisdictions remain very high. Prosecutorial guidelines won't change that for those provinces that use po
October 27th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Justice committee As Professor Grant pointed out, it's entirely appropriate that the burden of proof be on the accused to prove, on the balance of probabilities, that they were in such a state. It's information and evidence in their hands, not the hands of the prosecution. Furthermore, it's not c
October 27th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Justice committee I think the difficulty with this legislation is that it suggests the Crown has to prove the foreseeability of loss of control and risk of harm. In particular, I think the second standard is going to be impossible for the Crown to prove. They're going to have to prove it beyond a
October 27th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Justice committee The complaint is its own evidence.... Go ahead.
October 27th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy
Justice committee Yes. That issue is not up for grabs. It's very clear that simple intoxication is not a defence for any of the kinds of crime we're talking about, general-intent crimes. It is a defence for specific-intent crimes, such as murder, for example, but not a defence for these crimes. T
October 27th, 2022Committee meeting
Prof. Elizabeth Sheehy