OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada’s Conservative Party praised one of his newest pro-life MPs, Andrew Lawton, for telling his story about almost dying by suicide, and for raising awareness of a bill that seeks to stop euthanasia from being expanded to those with mental illness.
“I want to thank Andrew for bravely coming forward to tell his story to try and help others suffering with their mental health,” wrote Poilievre on X last week.
Poilievre then thanked another one of his MPs, Tamara Jansen, for “leading the effort with Bill C-218 to protect these people and get them proper health care and treatment, not assisted suicide.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Conservative MP Lawton, who almost died in a suicide attempt 15 years ago, recently launched an initiative to help those struggling with mental illness choose life and to help stop a plan by the Canadian government to expand euthanasia to those with mental illness.
The Private Members Bill, C-218, or “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying [i.e., euthanasia]),” was introduced by Jansen and passed its first reading on June 20, 2025.
LifeSiteNews reported on Bill C-218, noting that Jansen said allowing “medical assistance in dying” (MAID) – a euphemism for assisted suicide – for those with mental illness is “not healthcare, that’s not compassion, it’s abandonment.”
“Mental illness is treatable. Recovery is possible, but only if we show up and help,” she told fellow MPs.
Jansen’s Bill C-218 reads, “This enactment amends the Criminal Code to provide that a mental disorder is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition for which a person could receive medical assistance in dying.”
The Conservative Party has attempted to oppose the expansion of euthanasia for some time, but recent legislative attempts to stop the expansion outright, instead of just delaying it, such as through Bill C-314, have failed.
Assisted suicide was legalized by the Liberal government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016.
Under the current law, assisted suicide is prohibited for minors and the mentally ill. Activists, however, have been pushing for these expansions with varying degrees of success.
In 2021, the Trudeau government expanded euthanasia from killing only “terminally ill” patients to allowing the chronically ill to qualify after the passage of Bill C-7. Since then, the government has sought to include those suffering solely from mental illness.
In February 2024, after pushback from pro-life, medical, and mental health groups as well as most of Canada’s provinces, the federal government delayed the mental illness expansion until 2027.
The expansion of euthanasia for the mentally ill is slated to become law in 2027 due to the passage of Bill C-7.
