Feds get another month to reform assisted-dying law as bill stalls in the Commons

The federal government was granted one more monthtoday to expand access to medical assistance in dying even as itsefforts to do so stalled in the House of Commons.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Martin Sheehan agreed to give thegovernment a fourth extension until March 26 to bring the lawinto compliance with a 2019 court ruling.

The decision came just one day before the previous deadline wasto expire.

The 2019 ruling struck down a provision in the law that allowsassisted dying only for those whose natural deaths are"reasonablyforeseeable."

Bill C-7 is intended to bring the law into compliance with theruling, expanding access to assisted dying to individuals experiencingintolerablesufferingwho are not approaching the ends of their lives.

Conservatives withhold unanimous consent

But the bill is stalled in the Commons, where theConservatives refused for the third straight day today tofacilitate debate on a motion laying out the government's responseto amendments passed last week by the Senate.

Conservative MPs talked out the clock on the motion Tuesday andthen refused the unanimous consent needed to extend the debate untilmidnight, despite calling last week for extended hours to allowthorough debate on the issue.

They refused unanimous consent again Wednesday to allow theCommons to sit into the night to wrap up debate on the motion.And they refused unanimous consent again to sit Thursday night.

The Bloc Quebecois offered to give up its opposition daytoday an opportunity for it to set the agenda in the Commons toallow debate on the motion to continue. The minority Liberalgovernment said itdecided that would be pointless,given the Conservatives'stalling tactics.

"Conservatives have twice blocked our proposal that the Housesit late to debate this important issue, despite claimingthat theywant extended hours," Mark Kennedy, a spokesman for governmentHouse leader Pablo Rodriguez, said late Wednesday.

"Based on this, we now know that Conservatives will continue toobstruct, and cancelling the Bloc opposition daytomorrow will notchange anything."

The Conservatives were largely opposed to the original bill andobject even more strenuously to the amended versionthe governmentis now proposing.

Bill still has to go back before Senate

The bill originally would have imposed a blanket ban on assisteddying for people suffering solely from mental illnesses.Thegovernment is now proposing a two-year time limit on that exclusion six months longer than the time limit approved by senators.

The government has rejected another Senate amendment that wouldhave allowed advance requests for assisted dying,as well as anamendment intended to clarify what constitutes a mental illness. Ithas accepted a modified version of two other amendments.

The Bloc has said it will support the government's response tothe Senate amendments, assuring the motion's eventual passage. Butuntil Conservatives agree to wrap up debate, it can't be put to avote.

Once the motion is passed, the bill will still have to go back tothe Senate for senators to decide whether to accept theverdict ofthe elected parliamentary chamber or dig in their heels on theiramendments.