B.C. Civil Liberties Association says new assisted-dying law 'cruel and unjust'

The civil liberties group that put forward the legal case for assisted dying in Canada is slamming the recently-passedfederal law on the subject.

The much-debated Bill C-14 received royal assentFriday afternoon after passing a final vote in the Senate earlier in the day.

Josh Patterson, executive director of theB.C. Civil Liberties Association, said the Supreme Court decision they fought for gave both terminal and non-terminal patients who are suffering intolerably the right to seek assistance to die.

However, the new lawstates that onlypatients who are near death, or where death is "reasonably foreseeable,"qualify for a physician-assisted death.

"People are going to be trapped inintolerablesuffering that means peopleare going to potentially commit suicide early, while they still have the physicalcapacityto do so, because they're not going to have the legal ability to get a doctor to assist them later," saidPatterson.

"The Supreme Courtalready found that was unjust, that was unconstitutional."

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'Cruel and unjust'

Patterson commended the Senate for trying to expand the rules aroundwho can qualify for a doctor-assisted death.But the legislation that passed in the House of Commonsonly included some of theSenate's recommendations.

The foreseeable death parameters weren'tthe only ones Patterson took issue with. He said limitingthe right to physician-assisted death only to those with an incurableillness is also an issue.

He cited as an example a cancer patient who doesn't feel they have the strength or the will to go through yet another round of chemotherapy. Under the new law, they would either need to subject their bodies to unwanted treatment or wait until their illness gets worse before they would be eligible.

"We think that is cruel and unjust," Patterson said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeaudefendedhis government's decision to rejectthe Senate's biggest recommended change to the bill.He said the bill balanced rights and freedoms with protecting the rights of "vulnerable Canadians."

Similarly,Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said expanding the eligibility requirements could allow for anyone with a serious illness, including soldiers with PTSD or young people with spinal cord injury, to legally be allowed to seek physician-assisted death.

Potential legal battle coming

Patterson said the BCCLA battle the case for five years at the Supreme Court of Canada, and if it has to, it will return there.

"We going to have to consider ouroptionsvery closely, looking at the bill anddecidingwhat to do.This is not a bill that can be allowed to stand it's unconstitutional," he said.

"People who for the last year thought they could see the end approaching and that they were going to have an ability to get relief fromtheir suffering, that's nowbeen closed off to them and they're going to have to wait potentially years more."

With files from RoshiniNair