QUESTION PERIOD — Health
Medical Assistance in Dying
May 12, 2022
Honourable senators, my question is for Senator Gold. More than a year ago, the government rejected an amendment passed by the Senate to allow for advanced requests for medical assistance in dying but then promised there would be significant consultations and study of the issue. The election brought those meetings to a halt, and then there was another five-month delay in getting the committee up and running again. The committee has held just two meetings on advanced requests with no intention to review it further before its report this fall.
Senator Gold, our mandate requires us to conduct:
. . . significant consultations and study, including a careful examination of the safeguards for persons preparing advance request and safeguards for practitioners administering medical assistance in dying . . . .
Do you believe these two meetings meet the requirements set out by that mandate?
Thank you for your question.
I was not aware that the committee, which operates independently, had decided that it had sufficient input to complete its reflections or to inform its reflections on this issue, but it is for the committee to decide how it wants to proceed, and, indeed, it is for the committee to decide how frequently it wants to meet.
We passed a resolution here, as did our counterparts in the other place, to extend the deadline for the report, and I have every confidence that the committee will do what it needs to do to provide the recommendations, to which we all look forward to receiving.
Perhaps you could ask members of the government who are participating in the committee to ensure that these joint committees don’t treat senators as second-class citizens. Schedules are determined by members of Parliament, and their behaviour tends to be more partisan. We even have different speaking times for senators.
Moving forward, can you assure us that, on these kinds of joint committees dealing with such profound matters, senators are treated more equitably?
Thank you for the question and for pointing out that of which I was not aware, that the senators on the committee feel somehow that they are not being treated equitably. I encourage the senators on the committee to work with their counterparts to address that directly, and I will certainly make inquiries so that I can be better informed as to the circumstances you describe.
