Ottawa, ON – The Liberal government has voted against Bill C-218, The Right To Recover Act, defeating legislation that would have permanently stopped the expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) to cases where mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition.
Introduced by Conservative MP Tamara Jansen, C-218 would have amended the Criminal Code to ensure that a mental disorder, by itself, could not qualify as a grievous and irremediable medical condition for the purposes of MAiD eligibility. Without new legislation, the current exclusion is scheduled to expire on March 17, 2027.
Earlier this year, Parliament’s Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD) completed its review after hearing from experts and stakeholders. The committee recommended that people whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness be indefinitely excluded from eligibility for MAiD.
“Parliament asked the Special Joint Committee to study this issue, the committee heard the evidence, and it recommended that this expansion should not proceed,” said Jansen. “The government has accepted the principle that the exclusion should continue, yet today it voted against legislation that would have given Parliament a clear path to make that happen.”
Before the vote took place, Minister of Justice Sean Fraser said that the ambiguity between “mental disorder” rather than “mental illness” is one of the main reasons the government cannot support the bill. Yet that distinction originated from the government’s own expert panel and legislative framework.
Conservatives made it clear that if the government had concerns about terminology, we were prepared to work with all parties to address those concerns through amendments at committee.
Instead, the government chose to defeat the bill at second reading, leaving the March deadline in place.
“Disagreement over terminology was not a reason to kill this necessary bill,” Jansen added. “Conservatives were prepared to work through those concerns at committee. But with less than six months remaining before the current exclusion expires, Parliament does not have time to let technical disagreements stand in the way of action.”
Instead, the Liberal government defeated the bill at its second reading, while promising that it intends to introduce separate legislation at some point in the future. To date, neither Members of Parliament nor the Minister himself has seen the text of such a bill because they “are in the process of drafting right now the specifics in the bill”, said the Minister.
Jansen continued: “If the government truly believed in preventing MAiD for cases of mental illness, then they would have supported our bill. But when Canadians needed action, the Liberals chose politics. Rather than supporting a bill that is ready to move forward, the Liberals are exploiting the March deadline to push an unwritten bill with completely unrelated issues.”
“Canadians suffering from mental illness cannot afford more delay. They deserve treatment, support, hope and the opportunity to recover,” Jansen concluded. “With less than half a year remaining, Parliament should be acting on legislation that is already before it. Instead, the government has chosen a path that creates further uncertainty and delays.”