Roundup: Supreme Court okays assisted dying

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In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled 9-0 that struck down laws around doctor-assisted dying in this country, so long as the person is a competent adult with a condition that they have no hope of recovering from, be it terminal or an acute disability. As well, it’s worth noting that while Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin wrote for the minority in the 1993 Sue Rodriguez case, she led a unanimous court this time. The ruling is welcomed by those who live with pain and who know that it will only get worse, as well as by Conservative MP Stephen Fletcher, who has been fighting for these changes in parliament. The head of the Canadian Medical Association wants there to be a process to set the rules around this new right. Emmett Macfarlane parses the decision and shows how it paves the way for governments, which have been too politically paralysed to deal with these kinds of issues. Carissima Mathen says the ruling not only shows the ways in which laws evolve, but that it’s a call to action for governments – and explains the ruling on Power Play. Jonathan Kay writes about the perversity of the current law, where the assisted suicide that was legal was to starve oneself in a cruel manner. Andrew Coyne fears this is a first step to some kind of death-on-demand system.

https://twitter.com/heathermallick/status/563782441681584131

https://twitter.com/kylekirkup/status/563720759080910848

Good reads:

  • The plan to place Hill security under the jurisdiction of the RCMP may not be constitutional. The NDP came up with their own counter proposal instead.
  • Paul Wells writes an amazing column on Harper and his autocratic tendencies with the monuments he keeps putting up, and how it goes too far with his plans for Hill security.
  • Scott Reid gives a recounting of John Baird as a political pragmatist, which may be the reason he chose now to jump ship (with some interesting youth political history thrown in).
  • Justin Trudeau started fleshing out the Liberal carbon policy in Calgary, calling it a “healthcare” model, but we still don’t know what the “stick” the federal government will wield will be.
  • Susan Delacourt notices how much worse the PMO’s culture of control and scripted talking points seems to be getting of late.

Odds and ends:

Brent Rathgeber says CSIS needs more oversight, but is not sold on it being from parliament because of partisanship.

NDP MP Sylvain Chicoine says his former staffer’s harassment claim is vexatious and is an abuses of process.

Jason Kenney insists the Social Security Tribunal’s backlog can be eliminated by summer.