The medical assistance in dying bill is finally before the Senate’s legal and constitutional affairs committee, as the (extended) deadline approaches for it to be passed to comply with a Quebec court ruling, and we have justice minister David Lametti saying that there is always the possibility that they could yet refer this bill to the Supreme Court of Canada to get their judgment on whether it will meet the courts’ requirements. And I just cannot with this.
This is part of a pattern in this country where anytime there is a contentious or “moral” issue, parliamentarians of all stripes get afraid to put their necks on the line for something – no matter how right the cause is – and insist that the courts weigh in so that they can do the performative action of looking like they were dragged, kicking and screaming, into complying. They did this with lesbian and gay rights, they did this with safe injection sites, they did this with prostitution laws, and they did this with assisted dying – and in the cases of both prostitution laws and assisted dying, the laws drafted to replace those that were struck down were not going to comply with the court’s rulings, and yet they went ahead with them anyway so that they could force a new round of court challenges to really put on a show of kicking and screaming. It’s spineless, and it causes so much more unnecessary suffering (and in some cases, like with prostitution laws, deaths) when better laws could and should be drafted, but those MPs and senators who push for full compliance get sidelined by the skittish majority. And in the case of assisted dying, so many of those pushing to go back to the courts are simply seeking to re-litigate the action, which is not going to happen. A unanimous decision is not going to be scaled back on a second hearing.
While I am encouraged that Lametti did try to say that this option is not the best one, and his office later clarified that they have no plan to have yet another reference on assisted dying, but the fact that you have his clamour of people who don’t want to either make a decision, or who want to re-litigate the same issues, clamouring to send this back to the Supreme Court is disappointing. That parliament can’t respond to the Court’s ruling in a reasonable manner is one of the most irritating things about how we run this country, and it would be great if our MPs (and some senators) could forego the theatrics.
Good reads:
- Justin Trudeau had a call with Kamala Harris, and among the many topics they discussed were the two Michaels being detained in China.
- The government is preparing retaliatory trade measures if the EU decides to break their promises and block vaccine shipments (though they have insisted they won’t).
- Omar Alghabra says the government is mulling new land border restrictions to catch people trying who land in the US to try and evade quarantine.
- Surprising nobody, international criminal organizations are now selling fake COVID test certificates for travellers.
- Jonathan Wilkinson is confident that the Biden Administration is looking to Canada in terms of getting their own climate policies back on track (and possibly aligned).
- The immunity task force told the Commons health committee that only 1.5 percent of the population has COVID antibodies, and that immunity lasts up to eight months.
- Here’s a deeper dive into Steven Guilbeault’s impending fight with Big Tech as the government prepares to unveil its social media regulation legislation.
- In spite of the pandemic, the Liberals, Conservatives and Bloc all had record-breaking last quarter of 2020 for fundraising.
- Sandy Garossino reveals her interaction with Alberta’s “inquiry” into anti-energy activists, and demonstrates the further incompetence to this utter Gong Show.
- Colby Cosh finds praise for the BC Basic Income report, and delves into some of its findings and why they disrupt some of the established UBI narratives.
Odds and ends:
Senator Paula Simons recounts the story of Joseph Lewis, one of several Black fur traders who worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company in 18th century Canada.
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Trudeau and Harris talk, the Michaels sit in dirty cells with the lights on and Meng lives in luxury and complains about it. What is wrong with this picture? Canada is a land of saps. We need to send her back after our prisoners are in a safe third country. Screw the Yankees. We do too much for them and they take everything they can steal from us. Phooey!
So you want to show China that hostage diplomacy works?
Personally I was encouraged that he left open the option of revisiting the bill in whatever manner, for “those who think it doesn’t go far enough.” I’m one of them, more so after reading that article of yours about the mental health “exemption.” I also think foreign travellers should be able to have access to it (“suicide tourism”), something that no one seems to have brought up. Hopefully once this version is passed, a new round of consultations will open up more broadly and the government will listen this time. Maybe Bell Let’s Talk Day can be re-appropriated for it, now that Bell Media itself appears to be committing journalistic seppuku.
“…we have justice minister David Lametti saying that there is always the possibility that they could yet refer this bill to the Supreme Court of Canada….”
So, I think it’s now fair to admit that the delays, half-measures, and nervous politics around the medical assistance in dying bill were not all the fault of Jody Wilson-Raybould. Hard to acknowledge for some folks, I’m sure.