Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
A press release from Inclusion Canada on March 26, 2025 explained that the report from the UN Committee on Disability Rights that called for Canada, among other recommendations, to: Repeal Track 2 Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), including the planned 2027 expansion to persons whose “sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness,” and reject proposals to expand MAiD to “mature minors” and through advance requests.
Spichak writes in the Breach how Canada's federal government has ignored this recommendation. Spichak writes:
When the United Nations released a scathing report on Canada’s treatment of disabled people last spring—calling out inadequate financial supports and urging Ottawa to halt the expansion of medical assistance in dying—the federal government was silent.
Nearly a year later, it still is.
Spichak gained access to internal government emails indicating that the government expected little scrutiny of the report and further the government eliminated the Minister for Disability.The disability movement are not surprised. Spichak reports:
The UN report and its recommendations weren’t “surprising to anyone listening to the disabled community,” said Gabrielle Peters, a disabled writer and policy analyst and co-founder of the Disability Filibuster. Disabled Canadians, she said, expressed the same concerns in government testimony, to the media, and to “anyone who would listen.”Spichak contacted federal government departments to find out if they are planning to act on the report and was told that they are "reviewing" the report. Spichak states:
...But the government has not publicly responded to the findings nor has it committed to holding public consultations on how they will be implemented.This is not the first time that the federal government has been tight lipped about United Nations criticism of Canada's euthanasia law. Spichak explains:
Three UN human rights experts cautioned Canada in 2021 about MAiD expansion but did not receive a formal response.The United Nations further challenged Canada's euthanasia law in March 2025. Spichak writes:
In March 2025 Canadian officials met in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss Canada’s track record on disability. They were asked to justify how the expansion of MAiD differs from “state-sponsored eugenics.”Kayess challenged Canadian officials concerning Track 2 MAiD because Track 2 euthanasia approvals apply specifically to people with disabilities. The UN Committee was not pleased with the response of the Canadian officials. Spichak explains:
Rosemary Kayess, vice-chair of the UN’s disability rights committee, questioned officials about the 2021 creation of the Track 2 pathway for MAiD. Track 2 expands access to medical euthanasia to people with significant and irreversible medical conditions, whose deaths are not foreseeable, if they experience what the law defines as “substantial suffering.”
The UN committee was not satisfied with the responses they received. In a report they released a month later, they argued the federal court case that led to the creation of Track 2 MAiD established euthanasia based on “negative, ableist perceptions of the quality and value of the life of persons with disabilities.” It implied, they said, that suffering is intrinsic to disability rather than that “inequality and discrimination cause and compound ‘suffering.’”Spichak then commented on the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner's MAiD reports:
In line with many disabled advocates, the committee argued that providing MAiD to disabled individuals allows the government “to enable their death without providing safeguards that guarantee the provision of support.”
According to the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner, as well as federal government reports, women and marginalized individuals are more likely to access Track 2 MAiD. One woman, referred to as Mrs. B, was euthanized within one day because her husband was “experiencing caregiver burden.” The woman, who was in her 80s, experienced complications after a coronary artery bypass graft.
Critics also say MAiD advocates often ignore the role that systemic deprivation —including poverty, inadequate services, lack of access to publicly funded psychotherapy, and social isolation—has in shaping who seeks assisted death.
In 2022, a 51-year old woman known as Sophia, who lived with multiple chemical sensitivity, accessed MAiD after being unable to secure affordable housing with adequate ventilation that would ease her symptoms.
Spichak suggests that the UN Committee on Disability Rights reports may have delayed the implementation of euthanasia in Canada to people with mental illness alone. Currently Canada's federal government has scheduled the implementation of euthanasia for mental illness alone for March 17, 2027.
Spichak states that the euthanasia lobby consider denying euthanasia for mental illness alone is illogical and discriminatory while opposition to euthanasia for mental illness alone argue that:
Gabrielle Peters questioned whether government funded disability charities and non-profits who receive at least 50% of their funding from the federal government will be capable of providing a - “controlled opposition” to government policy. Peters called the government's consultation on disability:
Spichak states that the euthanasia lobby consider denying euthanasia for mental illness alone is illogical and discriminatory while opposition to euthanasia for mental illness alone argue that:
...it has so far proved impossible to determine whether someone’s mental illness is truly untreatable. The International Association for Suicide Prevention, an official partner of the UN, echoed similar concerns.Spichak continues by explaining that the federal government has established no consultation process on the United Nations recommendations. Health Canada told Spichak that they were having a closed door round table meeting on February 26 to discuss the United Nations recommendations.
Gabrielle Peters questioned whether government funded disability charities and non-profits who receive at least 50% of their funding from the federal government will be capable of providing a - “controlled opposition” to government policy. Peters called the government's consultation on disability:
“An illusion of involvement that props up a policy of horror disguised by euphemisms and omissions.”The article further discusses the response by the federal government to the UN Committee on Disability Rights report on Canada's euthanasia law and concludes:
Almost a year after the report’s release, there is no plan to substantially act on any of the UN’s recommendations. Government officials guessed right: mainstream news outlets have largely ignored the report’s criticisms of MAiD. Meanwhile, the situation for disabled Canadians—the poverty, health-care inequity, and other systemic neglect contributing to these deaths—remains unchanged.The government has ignored the concerns of the disability community concerning Canada's euthanasia law as they continue to move towards more killing by euthanasia.
More articles on this topic:
- How euthanasia fails Canada's most vulnerable (Link).
- Shouldn't care come before euthanasia? (Link).
- The International disability rights community is concerned with Canada's euthanasia law (Link).
- UN demands change: Canada must end MAiD for people without terminal illness (Link).
- United Nations Committee directs Canada to repeal Track 2 euthanasia deaths (Link).
- Canada's euthanasia deaths continue to rise with approximately 16,500 euthanasia deaths in 2024 (Link).
- Has Canada's euthanasia law gone too far (Link).
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