Afternoon front page: Canada urged to abandon plans for psychiatric euthanasia; slowing the runaway MAID train; and more

The report tabled Wednesday by the special joint committee of senators and MPs contains a single recommendation: “That the Government of Canada amend the Criminal Code to indefinitely exclude persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness from eligibility for medical assistance in dying.” Photo by Getty Images

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It’s Wednesday, June 17. Here are the top stories we’re following today.

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Canada should ‘indefinitely’ abandon plans for psychiatric euthanasia, parliamentarians urge

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A special joint committee of senators and MPs studying the issue has concluded that Canada’s Criminal Code should be amended to “indefinitely exclude” people with mental illness alone from being eligible for physician-assisted death.

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Marcus Powlowski, co-chair of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, speaks to reporters on Parliament Hill, June 17, 2026. Photo by Blair Gable/Postmedia

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John Ivison: Finally a plea to slow the ‘runaway’ MAID train

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“MAID was meant to be a last resort, not death on demand. The evidence suggests we are already getting it wrong. At least the committee’s recommendation, if adopted, means the state is not going to be obliged to help take more lives that could be turned around,” writes Ivison.

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Police in Ontario raided a large contraband cigarette factory, seizing machinery and tobacco worth more than $10 million, and a handgun. Photo by Ontario Provincial Police

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Cigarette factory on Six Nations reserve run by non-Indigenous criminals and staffed by foreign nationals, police say

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Police say profits generated from the illegal tobacco production were channelled into a criminal enterprise outside the reserve. “This operation involved non-Indigenous criminal networks exploiting Indigenous lands, with profits that did not benefit our community,” said the reserve’s police chief.

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Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy delivers the Susan Holt-led Liberal government’s first Speech from the Throne in the New Brunswick Legislature in Fredericton on Nov. 19, 2024. Photo by Government of New Brunswick/Submitted

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Jamie Sarkonak: Unilingual Canadians are inferior in the Supreme Court’s eyes

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A recent Supreme Court ruling that bans the appointment of unilingual speakers to a bilingual government office, such as the governor general of New Brunswick, “just so happens to align with Liberal bilingualism mandates for executive roles in the federal government, Supreme Court judges and even private-sector bank managers,” Sarkonak writes.

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The courthouse in Prince George, B.C. where an Indigenous man was sentenced to the minimum for second-degree murder despite the ‘horrific’ murder of his wife and son. Photo by Government of B.C.

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B.C. man who murdered wife and son gets ‘below normal’ sentence due to Indigenous heritage

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The judge noted in his sentencing decision that both of the man’s parents were residential school survivors and he “grew up poor in a remote environment of violence and drug and alcohol abuse.”

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