Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
Sarah Ritchie reported for the Canadian Press on June 19, 2025 that Canada's Liberal government is giving no sign if it intends to amend existing legislation on medical assistance in dying — something a UN committee called for earlier this spring.
On March 21, 2025; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Committee’s Concluding Observations on Canada’s Disability Rights Record report was released. Among the many recommendations, Sections 19 and 20 of the UN Committee report outlined their response to Canada's (MAiD) euthanasia law. (Link to the report).
Section 20 of the report urged the Canadian government to:
(a) Repeal Track 2 Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), including the 2027 commencement of Track 2 MAiD for persons whose “sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness”;Ritchie explains that the report stated:
(b) Not support proposals for the expansion of MAiD to include “mature minors” and advance requests;
“(T)he concept of ‘choice’ creates a false dichotomy, setting up the premise that if persons with disabilities are suffering, it is valid for (Canada) to enable their death without providing safeguards that guarantee the provision of support,”Canada's federal government has scheduled to allow euthanasia for mental illness (alone) beginning in March, 2027. A report by the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD) that was tabled in the House of Commons in February, 2023 called for an expansion of euthanasia to include children "mature minors" and patients with mental illnesses and that patients with dementia be permitted to make an advance request for euthanasia.
Ritchie reported that The federal minister responsible for disabilities spoke at a hearing of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities last week, about two months after the committee called on Canada to repeal the 2021 law that expanded eligibility for assisted dying to those whose deaths were not reasonably foreseeable.
According to Ritchie Government Minister Patty Hajdu stated:
“It’s about, for me, making relationships in this space and making sure that I have a really strong connection with the community, which I think is really important to be a good minister,” she said in an interview after the speech.A spokesperson for Minister Hajdu said the government thanks the committee for its report. Ritchie reported a spokesperson as stating:
Her address did not cite the committee’s report, which was released in late March as the federal election got underway.
“MAID is a deeply personal choice. We will make sure that the rights of persons with disabilities are upheld and protected,” said Jennifer Kozelj.Ritchie restated that the report said that the committee is “extremely concerned” about Canada’s policy on track 2 medical assistance in dying.
Disability rights groups in Canada have argued the law singles out people with disabilities who are suffering because they’re unable to access proper support. Ritchie reported:
Last September, Inclusion Canada was among a group of organizations that filed a Charter of Rights challenge against what’s known as track 2 MAID.Garnett Genuis, the Conservative employment critic, also attended the UN event. Ritchie reported:
In court documents, they argued the law “allows people with disabilities to access state-funded death in circumstances where they cannot access state-funded supports they need to make their suffering tolerable.”
The organization’s CEO, Krista Carr, said she wants to see Ottawa deliver an action plan on implementing the recommendations in the UN report.
“It was crystal clear — the United Nations said they need to repeal track 2 medical assistance in dying,” she said.
Genuis is worried about Canada’s international reputation being harmed by what he called Ottawa’s. “failures to uphold our obligations to protect the rights of people with living with disabilities.”Richie asked other federal Ministers and received these responses:
“There is a lot of concern internationally within the disability rights community about what’s happening in Canada around euthanasia and people living with disabilities,” he said.
The offices of Health Minister Marjorie Michel and Justice Minister Sean Fraser did not say whether Ottawa is considering changes to the assisted dying law as a result of the report.Ritchie reported on why Canada expanded its euthanasia law, and it's effect.
A spokesman for Michel cited strict eligibility requirements and “multiple robust safeguards” in the current law.
Canada’s medical assistance in dying law was updated in 2021 after the Quebec Court of Appeal found that limiting access to people whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable amounted to discrimination.More articles on this topic:
The federal government opted not to take that ruling to the Supreme Court, and instead changed the law to broaden eligibility.
The latest annual report on medical assistance in dying shows that 622 of the 15,343 people who had an assisted death in 2023 were part of that track 2. They included 210 people who self-identified as having a disability.
1 comment:
It is stated above that the United Nations report objects to the notion that "if persons with disabilities are suffering, it is valid for (Canada) to enable their death without providing safeguards that guarantee the provision of support". Therefore, based on this lack of support, the same report calls for the repeal of Track 2 (non-terminal) euthanasia in Canada.
I believe it is very, very important to note that this language does not actually imply any objection to killing the disabled (if such guarantees of support were in place). Hence the dispute merely becomes one of exactly how much "support" is required before they can fire up the ovens.
As a disabled individual, myself eligible for Track 2 euthanasia, I personally demand much, much more than that. As things stand now, it is legal in specified circumstances, for third parties to kill me. On the other hand, people who do not have the particular illnesses or disabilities which would qualify them for Track 2 are protected, by law, against any such thing, whether they are willing to die or not.
This is a flagrant instance of unequal treatment before the law.
I demand that same protection. Period.
I do not care what sort of gold-plated toilet seat the government is or isn't willing to provide me with. I demand the same protection, against the very real risk of being murdered, which the Canadian Criminal Code affords to everybody else.
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