During a debate on Bill C-41, a Liberal MP admitted that she envisions a Canada where suicide-on-demand is available to anyone – regardless of the circumstances.
Bill C-41 is the Carney government’s proposed legislation to ban euthanasia for mental illness while simultaneously legalizing “advance directives,” which would allow Canadians to pre-approve their death by lethal injection after they have lost the capacity to consent.
After losing the public debate on euthanasia for mental illness, the Liberal government decided to vote against Conservative MP Tamara Jansen’s Bill C-18, which would have banned the practice, and instead put forward a bill that both restricted and expanded Canada’s euthanasia regime.
During a parliamentary debate on Thursday, MP Andrew Lawton posed a question to Kristina Derksen, the Liberal MP for Milton-East Halton Hills South.
“I know [my colleague] is very passionate about his issue,” Lawton said. “She actually co-hosted an event with Dying with Dignity Canada. The CEO of Dying with Dignity said the following: ‘Dying with Dignity Canada envisions a world where everyone who wishes to consider a MAiD can do so.’ No acknowledgement in that line of any medical condition; of any suffering whatsoever. Does my colleague agree or disagree with that vision?”
It’s a simple question to answer. The formal government line, at the moment, is that assisted suicide for mental illness is too far – but in an attempt to satiate the death lobby both inside and outside their caucus, they are offering Canadians with dementia in exchange for Canadians with mental illness. Derksen, however, deliberately took the bait.
“Mr. Speaker, in this House and around the Committee table, we had the great benefit of hearing from so many people from a variety of backgrounds and differing perspectives,” she responded. “In fact, it was a journey for me, too, to listen, because I came to the table with my own perspectives as well. Opening up one’s mind, as we are here today debating this bill, is so crucially important.”
“I think what I am envisioning for Canadians,” she concluded, “is what I’ve been saying all along: the right to determine their own decisions with respect to their bodily autonomy and how they want to, if they choose to, leave this life in the way that they choose is best for them.”
In short, Derksen affirmed that she holds the same view as Dying with Dignity Canada: suicide by doctor, on demand. Lawton posed a clear question, and she knew precisely what he was asking – and she chose to respond by affirming her belief that Canadians should be able to “choose to leave this life in the way that they choose is best for them.” Not sick Canadians; not suffering Canadians; just Canadians.
Attempting to find common ground with the Liberal government on assisted suicide bears similarities to negotiating with terrorists: they will say one thing for public consumption, but they mean something else entirely. The Liberals did not decide to ban assisted suicide for mental illness because it is the right thing to do.
They wanted to ban it because they decided that the PR fallout from the horror show that was headed our way wasn’t worth the political cost. Some, like Derksen, envision a different Canada in the future.
