OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre praised legislation to block euthanasia from expanding to the mentally ill.
In a July 10 post on X, Poilievre commended Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Tamara Jansen for introducing “The Right to Recover Act” to protect mentally ill Canadians from being targeted by so-called “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAID).
“MP Tamara Jansen’s The Right to Recover Act will save countless lives,” Poilievre wrote. “It says that mental illness is not sufficient grounds for Medical Assistance in Dying. Thanks to MP @AndrewLawton for courageously sharing his story.”
“Our loved ones suffering with their mental health deserve support, not assisted death from the government,” he continued. “Recovery is possible. We will not give up on them.”
Bill C-218, introduced by Jansen and co-sponsored by Lawton in June, would prevent extending assisted suicide for mental illness, which the Canadian government is set to do in 2027.
The legislation would amend “the Criminal Code to provide that a mental disorder is not a grievous and irremediable medical condition for which a person could receive [so-called] medical assistance in dying.”
Assisted suicide was legalized by the Liberal government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016.
Since then, the euthanasia regime has expanded from killing “terminally ill” patients to allowing the chronically ill to qualify for assisted suicide after the passage of Bill C-7.
Liberals also planned to expand assisted suicide to mentally ill Canadians but decided to delay the expansion until 2027 following backlash from Canadians and prominent doctors.
In January 2024, provincial health ministers went a step further than seeking a delay in the provision, asking for the measure to be “indefinitely” postponed.
Similarly, several Canadian psychiatrists warned that the country is “not ready” for the coming expansion of euthanasia to those who are mentally ill. They said that further liberalizing the practice is not something that “society should be doing” as it could lead to deaths under a “false pretence.”
Also alarming, as reported by LifeSiteNews in May, documents show that Health Canada has been funding a university research project concerning “youth views” on euthanasia that included a brief discussion as to whether children with severe autism would ever be allowed to qualify for death under the nation’s assisted suicide program.
The most recent reports show that “MAID” is the sixth highest cause of death in Canada. However, it was not listed as such in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022. When asked why it was left off the list, the agency explained that it records the illnesses that led Canadians to choose to end their lives via euthanasia, not the actual cause of death, as the primary cause of death.
According to Health Canada, in 2022, 13,241 Canadians died by assisted suicide lethal injections. This accounts for 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country for that year, a 31.2 percent increase from 2021.
