The government made an announcement yesterday that they will be permanently barring MAiD for mental illness as a sole condition, but that they will legislate to allow for advanced directives. They just don’t have that bill ready to table yet. Essentially their hand was forced by a Conservative private members’ bill that was coming up for a vote that would have also banned this category of MAiD, but there were concerns over the language used, so they didn’t want it to pass, so they had to try and get ahead of it, and lo, they have now thrown people’s Charter rights under the bus and put a lie to the notion that mental health is indistinguishable from physical health.
One of the most insulting parts of the announcement, however, was basing it on the special joint committee report, because that report was an absolute farce. The fix was in on the committee before its work even got started, particularly as the government installed an anti-MAiD Liberal as a co-chair, and they went about excluding certain witnesses who would have testified that the profession was ready to do the evaluations necessary to see if people met the criteria for eligibility. Members of the committee resigned because they knew the fix was in, while others—mostly senators—put a dissenting report that called out the problems with the main report. Suffice to say, this was entirely a bad faith exercise with a predetermined outcome in mind, because this is a conservative government in Liberal drag.
They got the decision they wanted from that committee. It was not a good-faith exercise.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-10-07T20:15:50.820Z
First has been shown to have been illegitimate (e.g., Co-Chairs went in opposed to MAiD and did not exercise authority as Chairs in unbiased way, didn't hear from those being excluded, one Co-Chair suggested people with mental illness can just access fentanyl) 2/3
— Jocelyn Downie (@jgdownie.bsky.social) 2026-10-07T17:48:30.655Z
Second held with no transparency or accountability. Who did they talk with? No way to know what misinformation they were provided and relied upon. Deeply flawed processes = deeply flawed decisions. 3/3
— Jocelyn Downie (@jgdownie.bsky.social) 2026-10-07T17:48:30.656Z
Meanwhile, there have been so many torqued, misleading or outright false articles being published about how Canada is “euthanizing” all kinds of seniors or people with illnesses, part of an ongoing campaign to discredit MAiD in Canada and to prevent its adoption in the UK (legislation was recently voted down narrowly), and there are no stories too horrible that they won’t concoct in order to paint a completely false picture of the state of the law here, while Conservative MPs are all over social media screaming “Why is nobody writing about this?” when the false stories would be describing murder, which is not what happened. But as with so many things, this government is completely uninterested in combatting this disinformation, and will just let it fester because they’re too chickenshit to defend Charter rights when it’s difficult.
My Latest:
- My column wonders if Mark Carney will bother to respect the constitution and challenge the PQ’s attempt to “abolish” the monarchy in the province.
- For National Magazine, I take a deep dive into the labour portion of Bill C-39 and whether it really is an attack on the right to strike.
Ukraine Dispatch:
That massive attack on Ukraine happened, with 32 dead so far, with the heaviest losses in Pryluky in the Chernihiv region, with more losses and damage in Kyiv, after Russia fired seventy missiles and dozens of drones.
Noteworthy:
- A court injunction has been filed that seeks to force Quebec MNAs to swear their oath to the King, so as not to make laws invalid (as the constitutional case awaits).
- Rob Shaw catalogues some of the missteps in the BC election so far, including the NDP failing to field candidates in every riding. (How?!)
- Andrew Leach explains how one of Danielle Smith’s constitutional referendum questions would actually make it harder to build an interprovincial pipeline.
The minister appears to be incompetent, but Carney won't move her because she's delivering on his (anti-migrant) agenda.
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-10-07T13:51:16.749Z
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