REALity – Volume XXXIV Issue No.9 September 2015
On July 17, 2015 the Conservative government appointed a panel to make recommendations on the issue of assisted suicide.
The Panel was put in place in response to the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada of February 6, 2015, Carter v. Canada, in which it ruled that the Criminal Code prohibition against assisted suicide violates the Charter rights of certain competent adults, with grievous and irremediable medical conditions, who seek the assistance of a physician to end their lives. The Court suspended its decision for 12 months, until February 6, 2016, to allow Parliament to respond by way of regulations and guidelines to facilitate assisted suicide. The government was to report its findings by the fall of 2015.
Members of the panel are:
- Dr. Harvey Max Chochinov, a leader in palliative care. He is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manitoba;
- Catherine Frazee, professor emeritus at Ryerson University and former Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. She is a disability rights lawyer;
- Benoit Pelletier, an expert in constitutional law at the University of Ottawa and former Quebec cabinet minister.
Both Dr. Chochinov and Catherine Frazee were witnesses in the Carter case, opposing assisted suicide.
The terms of reference of the panel provide that it is to consult key stakeholders, such as the interveners in the Carter case, and medical authorities as well as the Canadian public. The latter are requested to provide online submissions, which will remain anonymous, to the panel but the panel will meet directly with relevant groups, such as medical organizations, health care professionals, legal bodies, associations representing vulnerable populations, faith-based organizations and other key stakeholder groups. The panel is to provide a final report that outlines its key findings and options for a legislative response for consideration by the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Health.
The Panel will be focussed on the following issues:
- Forms of physician-assisted dying: i.e., assisted suicide, where a doctor prescribes a lethal dose of medication that the patient takes himself/herself; and voluntary euthanasia, where a doctor injects a lethal dose of medication into a patient to consensually terminate his/her life;
- Eligibility criteria and definition of key terms; and
- Safeguards to address risks and procedures for assessing requests for assistance in dying and the protection of physicians’ freedom of conscience.
Election Delays the Operation of the Panel
On August 2nd, 2015, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called a federal election, which is to take place on October 19, 2015. According to the terms of reference of the panel, it was required to suspend its operation until after the election.
The election call has reduced by approximately 2.5 months the time that the panel has to operate. The panel’s operation had also previously been limited by the fact that the Supreme Court of Canada gave the government only a twelve month window in which to implement its decision. This has made the panel’s operation extremely difficult.
The Notwithstanding Clause
One solution to this problem is for the federal government to suspend the Supreme Court Decision on assisted suicide for a five-year period by way of the application of the Notwithstanding Clause (s.33 of the Charter of Rights). This provision permits the federal government (and provincial governments, should an issue fall within provincial jurisdiction) to suspend the operation of a court decision for a five-year period. This five-year period can be repeatedly renewed. The Notwithstanding Clause would ensure the time for proper consultation and deliberation over this life and death issue. This decision on assisted suicide is crucial to Canadians. Sadly, whatever regulations or guidelines that are put in place to protect vulnerable individuals and their health care treatment from exploitation, will not be successful, judging from experience in other countries. In fact, guidelines do not actually protect vulnerable individuals. For example, in August, 2015, under the Swiss assisted suicide legislation, an active 75-year old woman from the U.K., who suffered no form of illness or any health issues at all, was given a lethal injection simply because she was afraid of getting old. In the Netherlands the assisted suicide legislation which initially was only to protect the terminally ill, has degenerated so that a parent now has the right to have an ill or a disabled child put to death by injection. In Belgium, euthanasia now occurs to facilitate organ harvesting. The patient is counselled on the nobility of his or her generous donation to others, and then, if they agree to be euthanized, the transplant surgeons are present, waiting in an adjoining room, so the body can be quickly transferred for organ removal.
When society accepts the fundamental premise that killing is an acceptable answer to human suffering, those who have mental illness are especially vulnerable. Their lives are now being terminated, without their consent, in many cases in the Netherlands and Belgium.
There is no use pretending that these horrors will not occur in Canada, regardless of how stringent our regulations may be. The only reasonable recourse, therefore, is to insist that the Notwithstanding Clause be applied so that the decision of these unaccountable, appointed judges be suspended – hopefully indefinitely.
On-Line Consultations to Continue
Although the panel has been prevented from operating during the election period, it has agreed to continue a passive approach to consultation during the federal election period. This means that the panel’s web site (www.ep-ce.ca) will continue to receive submissions and the on-line consultation tool, such as a questionnaire and information for the public developed for this purpose, will be available. The panel will not respond to any materials or submissions received.
Please send a submission recommending that the government apply the Notwithstanding Clause to this court decision on assisted suicide. This, together with a request for extended palliative care, are two viable means for us to protect the dignity of human life.
See Media Release:
To read REAL Women of Canada’s submission click here