Excerpt from a House of Commons speech by B.C. Conservative MP Tamara Jansen laying out the “impossible paradox” of MAiD if her Bill C-218 isn’t passed.
Mr. Speaker, I want the members to imagine someone's son. He is in his forties and life has worn him down. He lives with a painful illness that leaves him sick, exhausted and often unable to leave the house. On top of that, he struggles with addictions, depression and anxiety, which have taken more from him than anyone can see from the outside. Some days, he can barely hold it together. He relies on his family for a place to live, food and help getting through the week. They are doing their best, and he is doing his best, but the weight of it is crushing.
One day, he finally meets a psychiatrist. He goes, hoping this might finally be the start of real help. His addictions still have not been treated, and his mental health care has not truly begun. He is vulnerable, scared and hanging on by a thread.
Instead of being offered a plan to get him stable, MAiD is raised as an option. The assessment moves ahead, and before he ever receives proper support for his mental health or addictions, he is approved. His MAiD provider drives him to the place where his life is ended. This is someone's son who needed help, not a final exit.
Believe it or not, this happened here in Canada, and this is where we are headed if we do not act. Unless Parliament chooses a different path, Canada will allow MAiD for people whose only condition is mental illness. Men and women struggling with depression, trauma or overwhelming psychological pain could be steered toward death by a system that too often cannot offer timely treatment, consistent follow-up or even basic support. This is why I brought forward Bill C-218, the Right to Recover Act. It is simple. It asks Parliament to stop, consider what we have learned, and act responsibly before people are irretrievably harmed.
My grandparents immigrated here after World War II with very little. They chose Canada because it was a place where people had endless opportunities to better themselves, where neighbours watched out for each other and communities worked in unison to make a better life for all. They built a Canada where the vulnerable were cared for and the less privileged in society were valued and treated with equal care. Those fundamental values attracted millions of immigrants over the years.
Today, many Canadians fear we are losing those values. Canadians remain some of the most compassionate people, but our system is overwhelmed, stretched thin and unable to meet the needs of suffering people.
When people fall through the cracks, the easy temptation is to accept that failure is inevitable. When that happens, people facing mental illness can end up alone, waiting months, sometimes years, for specialized treatment. When help does not come, they lose hope. That moment of hopelessness should never be an opportunity for the State to end their lives through MAID.
When the House last debated MAID, mental illness was not part of the core discussion. It was added in a last-minute Senate amendment to Bill C-7. The implications were not fully understood by the House.
Psychiatrists across Canada, including chairs of psychiatry at all 17 medical schools, (tell) us plainly there is no reliable way to predict when a mental illness is irremediable, which is a requirement in the MAiD law. People get worse, but they also get better, and most do. No test, scan or clinical tool can reliably tell us someone will never recover. All people deserve the opportunity to get better. No one should be encouraged to give up on themselves.
As legislators, we need to listen to what so many medical professionals are telling us, which is how hard it is to distinguish between suicidal ideation and MAiD…. If MAiD is expanded, we will be forced into an impossible paradox. A suicidal person calling a crisis line is urged to hold on. Yet if they request MAID, that same despair may be treated as justification for death. This is why Bill C-218 is necessary. I urge every member in the House to support (it) so Canada remains a nation that protects the vulnerable, offers treatment before despair and gives every person the chance to recover. Let us take this responsibility seriously.
