Special committee meets to weigh expansion of MAID to mentally ill

OTTAWA — Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski and Conservative Senator Yonah Martin will co-chair a special joint committee on the expansion of Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program. 

The two were acclaimed joint chairs at the committee’s first meeting on Tuesday night.

The committee will deliberate expanding MAID to the mentally ill ahead of the conclusion of a temporary federal ban on assisted suicides for individuals whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness, which is set to expire on March 17, 2027.

Conservative MP Tamara Jansen was acclaimed as a vice-chair of the committee at the meeting. Jansen is the author of a private members’ bill , currently making its way through the House of Commons, that would permanently ban assisted suicides where the sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness.

Also on the committee is Conservative MP Andrew Lawton, who’s spoken extensively on men’s mental health after surviving a near-fatal suicide attempt in late 2010.

The 15-member committee consists of five Liberal MPs, four Conservative MPs, one Bloc Québécois MP and five Senators. Three of the Senators are Liberal appointees and two Conservative appointees.

The committee gets underway as Canada nears, by some estimates, 100,000 medically assisted deaths since MAID was legalized in June 2016. Health Canada’s most recent report on MAID states that 76,475 Canadians had died via assisted suicide as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Recent media reports have raised concerns about mental-health safeguards surrounding MAID, even with the current federal prohibition in place.

One recent case was that of 26-year-old Ontario man Kiano Vafaeian , who died by MAID in British Columbia in late December after being repeatedly denied by doctors in his home province. Family members say that Vafaeian, who struggled with mental illness and diabetes-related pain and vision loss, became obsessed with getting MAID during periods of depression.

An early 2024 poll conducted by Leger found that 42 per cent of Canadians supported expanding MAID to mentally ill individuals without a qualifying physical condition. Twenty-eight per cent opposed the expansion and 30 per cent said they didn’t know.

The Alberta government is expected to put forward provincial legislation in the coming weeks to prohibit MAID from being administered to Albertans whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness.

Krista Carr, CEO of disability rights group Inclusion Canada, said she hopes the committee will properly weigh the stakes of the MAID expansion for disabled Canadians.

“We would like to share that this group of MPs and Senators need to see MAID as a disability rights issue and consider it from that lens,” wrote Carr in an email.

National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com

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