MPs send assisted dying bill to Senate as C-14 deadline looms

Members of Parliamentvoted 186 to 137 on Tuesday to sendthe government's medically assisted dying bill to the Senate in hopes of passing the bill before the Supreme Court of Canada's June 6 deadline.

But some senators have signalled they are unhappy with the bill as drafted, and expect to makeamendments that would force the billback to theCommons for another vote, further delaying its passage.

The Trudeau government says it's holding out hope the Senate will approve the government's proposed billon doctor-assisted suicide in time to have new legislation passed before next week's deadline.

Dying With Dignity Canada, which objects to the legislation as written, asked senatorsto take the time required to get the bill right.

"The bill that was passed today provides no comfort to many Canadians who were promised choice in the face of incredible suffering but whose rights are now at risk," CEO Shanaaz Gokool said. "Now, it's up to representatives in the Senate to show the courage required to correct this injustice."

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In February2015, the high court ruled that a ban on doctor-assisted death was a violation of a patient's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That ruling gave the government 12 months to put a law in place to govern the practice.

When the Liberals won the October election, the new government went to court to successfully secure an extension to the deadline. The Supreme Court pushed the deadline back another four months.

A special joint Senate and Commons committee was struck to listen to witnesses and craft the new law.

When Bill C-14was tabled in Parliament in April, it restricted doctor-assisted death to mentally competent adults who have aserious and incurable illness, disease or disability who are "suffering intolerably" and whose death is "reasonably foreseeable."

The bill did not includesomeof the most contentious recommendations from theparliamentary committee's witnesses, including extending the right to die to "mature minors" and the mentally ill, or allowing advance consent for patients with degenerative disorders.

The bill was poorly received by someadvocates of assisted dying,who said the proposals did not go far enough, or bycritics of the bill, who said it goes too far.

Making the deadline

Health Minister Jane Philpott hassaid the governmentwas at risk of missing thedeadline and that new legislation wasneeded "as soon as possible."

"Without legislation in place, health-care providers will not have the legal framework that they require to proceed," Philpott told MPs Monday.

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• How Canadians grapple with death

The Canadian Pharmacists Association sent out a release backing the government in its wish tosee legislation in place by June 6.

"Bill C-14 strikes the appropriate balance between ensuring Canadians' right to access to assisted dying while providing the necessary protections for health-care professionals who choose to participate in assisted dying," the association said in a statement moments before question period got underway Monday.

Charter compliance

Critics of the billsay itwould be better to miss the deadline now and get itright, rather than put a law on the books that would just end up back in the Supreme Court facing another challenge.

Liberal MPRob Oliphant,the government appointed co-chair of the special committee studying medically assisted death, has also criticized the government's decision to limit the legislation.

"The [Supreme Court]gave us the possibility of alleviatingintolerable suffering, and the bill does not take sufficient measures in that regard," Oliphant said.

Oliphantvoted against sending the bill to the Senate.

Liberal MPs includingNathaniel Erskine-Smith,Robert-Falcon Ouelletteand David Lametti also voted against sending the bill to the Senate.