Committee to recommend Liberals indefinitely pause expanding MAID for mental illness: sources

Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski, who is co-chair of the special parliamentary committee looking into medical assistance in dying for those with mental illness. Photo by Blair Gable/Postmedia

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A special parliamentary committee is expected to recommend the federal government halt the expansion of MAID to those whose sole condition is a mental disorder, the latest development in a drawn-out and controversial chapter in the country’s assisted-death regime.

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The joint committee of senators and MPs struck to revisit Canada’s preparedness for medical assistance in dying for those with mental illness alone is expected to recommend an “indefinite pause” on the expansion, two sources told National Post. They spoke on the condition of anonymity as they are not authorized to speak on the committee’s behalf.

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A temporary exclusion is set to be lifted in March 2027.

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In total, the committee heard from 44 witnesses and received 32 briefs, many opposed to granting MAID eligibility based solely on mental illness over several core issues, including whether it’s possible to determine with any degree of certainty when psychiatric suffering has become “irremediable,” essentially incurable, and a lack of access to mental health care and supports.

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Three senators on the 17-member committee are expected to issue a dissenting report.

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In February 2024, the Liberal government passed legislation delaying the implementation of MAID for mental illness until next March. The joint committee was reconvened earlier this year to once again re-assess the country’s readiness for the expansion.

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Ottawa is currently awaiting the committee’s final report, expected to be tabled in the House of Commons Wednesday — the 10th anniversary of the legalization of assisted death in Canada — before deciding whether to continue with the 2027 timeline.

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Sixteen current and former chairs of psychiatry departments across Canada, and more than 90 disability and mental health organizations, appealed to the joint committee to halt extending MAID to include mental disorders as the sole underlying medical condition.

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Signatories to the letter from psychiatrists warned that there is no broadly accepted definition of irremediability and that “people can and do recover from prolonged suffering” from depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and other mental health disorders when provided appropriate treatments and support.

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Alberta is moving to exclude MAID for mental illness alone. In June 2023, Quebec’s Bill 11 passed stating that a mental disorder other than a neurocognitive disorder does not make a person eligible for MAID in Quebec.

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A medical leader from Nova Scotia said the maritime province was ready to expand MAID for mental illness, while Quebec’s minister of health and social services wrote to the committee, expressing Quebec’s opposition to the expansion. But no other province made themselves available to testify at the committee, sources said.

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Proponents of expansion told the joint committee people with mental illness can experience distress as profound as those with physical illnesses and should not be discriminated against or treated as “second-class citizens.” Some warned people would die by suicide if there is a further extension or permanent exclusion.