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Premier François Legault’s government says it will authorize advance requests for medical assistance in dying (MAID) this fall, even if Ottawa doesn’t move forward with the province’s request to modify the Criminal Code.
The new version of Quebec’s law on MAID, adopted June 7, 2023, will allow advance requests for people suffering from serious and incurable illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease, but the provision has not yet been implemented. In February, Quebec ministers called on Ottawa to modify the Criminal Code so health professionals who administer MAID as part of an advance request won’t be committing a criminal offence.
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“We’re going to be ready, we’re going to move forward,” Léa Fortin, the press secretary for Seniors Minister Sonia Bélanger, told the Presse Canadienne. “What we want is for it (the federal government) to change its Criminal Code, but if it doesn’t, we are working on other options.”
Quebec’s request has remained a dead letter to the federal government so far, according to Bélanger’s office.
“After multiple approaches, (the government) still remains on the ‘no’ side,” Fortin said.
In a letter from Bélanger and Jean-François Roberge to federal Health Minister Mark Holland dated June 21, 2024, the ministers wrote: “Several exchanges about this took place this spring between our governments, in particular with your colleague from (the Justice Ministry), so your government could demonstrate flexibility and openness and recognize that Quebecers have the possibility of making advance requests for medical assistance in dying in accordance with the provisions of the Act respecting end-of-life care. Several avenues … have been proposed, unfortunately no opening has been offered in this regard.”
“It’s a consensus in Quebec,” Fortin said. “It is a transpartisan approach. Users, parliamentarians, professionals — everyone agrees to move forward with MAID.”
Announcements on the subject are expected this fall.
Asked why discussions with Quebec are failing, Holland’s office avoided the question.
“We continue to collaborate with Quebec on this subject,” communications director Alexandra Maheux said in an email. “Minister Holland engages regularly with his counterparts.”
Patrick Taillon, a constitutionalist and law professor at Université Laval, thinks Quebec can move forward without Ottawa since Ottawa could not pursue Quebec doctors who administer MAID as part of an advance request.
“Who is filing the charges? It is the Quebec state. And if the Quebec state says, through a directive … when it respects our laws, we never file charges, well there won’t be a problem,” he said.
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