Liberals expected Wednesday to outline approach to expanding MAID eligibility for people with mental illness

The Story

The Liberal government is expected Wednesday to publicly set out its position on whether Canada is ready to allow people with mental illness to access medical assistance in dying (MAID).

Justice Minister Sean Fraser said he and Health Minister Marjorie Michel will outline the “path forward” before the House of Commons votes on a private member’s bill that would block an expansion to eligibility for people suffering from mental illnesses.

Under current timelines, people with a grievous and irremediable mental illness are set to become eligible to be assessed for medical assistance in dying in March.

A parliamentary committee studied the issue last spring and released its final report in June. The report, endorsed by Conservative and Liberal members, recommended that the government indefinitely exclude people with mental illness from accessing MAID.

The committee heard evidence arguing it is not possible to reliably determine when a mental illness is irremediable, as well as testimony from witnesses opposed to assisted dying more broadly.

Several senators who served on the committee wrote their own opinions, saying the committee’s process was flawed and biased.

Fraser said Tuesday that his office sought views from people with a wide range of perspectives after the report was released. “I feel confident that we’ve heard a range of different views in the development of the policy process,” he said.

The Conservative private member’s bill is championed by MPs Tamara Jansen and Andrew Lawton. It is scheduled for a vote at second reading in the House of Commons Wednesday, with MPs able to defeat the bill at that stage or send it to committee for further study.

Fraser declined to say how the government plans to vote on the legislation.

During debate at second reading in September, Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux, the parliamentary secretary to government House leader Steven MacKinnon, said the government does not necessarily support excluding people with mental illness. He pointed to a 2021 expansion of the assisted-dying regime after a Quebec court decision, which allowed people whose deaths were not reasonably foreseeable to seek MAID, while temporarily excluding people with only a mental illness for additional study. That temporary exclusion has been extended until next March.