Canada will not extend medically assisted death to people whose only condition is mental illness, Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced Wednesday, as CP24 reports. The Liberals will table legislation this fall to make the exclusion indefinite, although the bill is still being drafted and has no date.
“Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis,” Fraser told reporters on Parliament Hill. The expansion is set to take effect in March 2027, after the Trudeau government delayed it in 2024 until after the next federal election.
Fraser said the decision reflects the direction of a special joint parliamentary committee, which heard from more than three dozen witnesses and reported in June. He cited “very real concerns about people who live in communities with inadequate access to mental-health services” and testimony on “a lack of consensus when mental illness is irremediable.” He said the government had only “very, very recently finally formalized its position,” more than three months after the report, and that it was not “based on where we believe the politics is going to land.”
