Submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops on Bill C-7
The Catholic Bishops of Canada remain steadfastly opposed to Bill C-7 that further expands euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada, which the government and courts have euphemistically called “medical assistance in dying” (“MAID”). We also remain deeply troubled and perplexed that the Federal Government chose not to appeal the Quebec Superior Court “Truchon v. Attorney General of Canada” ruling which requires the eligibility criteria for euthanasia and assisted suicide to be expanded by removing the “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” criterion. The decision by the Government of Canada not to appeal the ruling of the Quebec Superior Court prompted Bill C-7. This postponed the “parliamentary review of …provisions [for “MAID”] and of the state of palliative care in Canada to commence at the start of the fifth year following the day on which [the Act] receives Royal Assent,” as had been determined in the original 2016 Act 1 to amend the Criminal Code. This review has yet to occur, which the Government had agreed would take place before introducing new amendments.