Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Again, we are very concerned about that because psychiatrists are extremely important in assessing suicidality and depression, as well as treatments. Even in addictions, people often have an underlying mental disorder, like post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, and that can be missed.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I have not.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  The contagion effects around suicide.... When there's a celebrity who dies by suicide.... There's clearly been lots of evidence around it. I was part of co-authoring the Canadian Psychiatric Association's media guidelines around suicide contagion in 2008. It's been worldwide. As far as suicide prevention—

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  In small communities, there's been clear evidence that there have been suicide contagion effects, where multiple people have died based on one person dying. That's been—

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I do believe that, yes.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Today's testimony is from eight chairs out of 16 right now. One department doesn't have a chair. Yes, we've had lots of discussion around this issue. There are a variety of political reasons the other chairs are not here, but they were part of the statement that was made last year, and the issues we brought up last year have still not been resolved.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I just want to add that when CPA testified two weeks ago, they said that they had not been fully supportive of MAID. They talked about the idea of equity, but we addressed in our comments that equity doesn't mean equal treatment. The majority of the surveys done have shown that the majority of psychiatrists are not in favour of MAID for mental illness.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Again, there's controversy on this issue. What we're trying to provide here is scientific evidence around determining and differentiating suicide from MAID and around irremediability. We don't agree with the fact that people with mental illness should have access to MAID when there are potential treatments that can help them recover.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  There are cases that suffer, but the idea is to sit with somebody who is depressed and hopeless and help them with their recovery.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I speak for 150 psychiatrists in Manitoba.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  The majority of them do, yes.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  It's probably close to 120.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  There are about 150. There are more than that, actually. I'm just talking about my department.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I consulted my department of psychiatry last year. We did a survey. I represent the department of psychiatry at the University of Manitoba and Shared Health. My colleagues are department chairs, and they're represented individually. They are in the position of trying to take this information and implement education and training.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Again, I would emphasize that I don't have any objections to MAID itself for physical illness or when people are dying. We're talking about MAID for mental disorders as a sole underlying condition, and there is no evidence to differentiate a MAID request from a suicide request. Whether it's planned—