Thank you Tamara Jansen for sponsoring Bill C-218

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is thankful to Tamara Jansen (MP) for sponsoring Bill C-218 and carrying this clear and important bill through parliament. Jansen's leadership was impressive.

Links to some excellent speeches by Tamara Jansen (Speech 1) (Speech 2) (Speech 3).

There were several other Members of Parliament who committed significant time and political capital to support Bill C-218, in particular Andrew Lawton (MP). 

Link to an excellent speech by Andrew Lawton (Speech)

Thank you also to the NDP caucus, Elizabeth May (Green Party) and Liberal members - Kent Macdonald and Marilyn Gladu who also supported Bill C-218.

The vote on Bill C-218 did not go as we had hoped but the campaign in support of Bill C-218 was excellent and resulted in the government announcing that they will introduce a government bill to prevent euthanasia for mental illness as a sole condition. We are not celebrating as we have not seen the language of the government bill, which may not have been written yet.

The government also announced that they will expand Canada's law to permit euthanasia by advanced request. This means that Canadians who declare, while competent, that they want to die by euthanasia, they can be killed at a later date, if they become incompetent.

The government announced that the bill will both prevent euthanasia for mental illness as a sole criteria and they will expand the law to allow euthanasia by advanced request. This is disgusting. The government will force Members of Parliament to vote on a bill that does both good and evil at the same time.

Since we have not seen the language of the bill we will not make a recommendation as to how Members of Parliament should vote on the bill.

We are nervous since euthanasia for mental illness, as a sole criteria is scheduled to begin March 17, 2027. The government does not have a lot of time.