OTTAWA -- Justice Minister David Lametti says that there is a "very real possibility" that the Liberals will allow a free vote on the government's medically-assisted dying legislation.
In an interview on CTV's Question Period with Evan Solomon, Lametti said that while it is not his call to make, the prospect of not whipping the vote—meaning all Liberal MPs have to vote in line with the government—is "being discussed as we speak."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau allowed his caucus to vote freely on the original assisted dying legislation they passed in 2016, but the reality of their current minority standing could be a factor in why the government hasn't already decided that'll be the case again when the updated law is voted on in the coming weeks and months.
"This is a matter of deep personal conscience to a lot of people and therefore there is a very real possibility," Lametti said.
He introduced legislative changes to the current federal assisted dying regime on Monday, in response to a September Quebec Superior Court ruling. The court struck down sections of the federal and Quebec laws on medically-assisted dying, deeming they were too restrictive.
Lametti was one of the handful of Liberal MPs who voted against the 2016 government bill being pushed forward by then-justice minister Jody Wilson Raybould, saying at the time as a lawyer he was hesitant to vote in support of a bill he thought was at real risk of being found unconstitutional.
Now, he says the proposed amendments strike a better balance. Though it's now going to be on the government to convince the other parties in the House of Commons of that. Debate is set to continue the week of March 9 when MPs return to Ottawa after a week in their ridings.
Bill C-7 proposes allow those eligible to pursue a medically-assisted death whether or not their death is reasonably foreseeable. The legislation also proposes to ease certain safeguards while creating other protections for Canadians whose natural death is not imminent, and expands the monitoring system for medical practitioners and pharmacists to reflect updates to assessment requirements.
It also aims to make it easier for patients who are near death and have requested an assisted death, but are worried about losing their ability to consent as their illness progresses. These changes would enable them to still qualify by removing the requirement for them to consent immediately before the procedure.
This change, which Lametti has referred to as the "Audrey Parker" amendment, in reference to the cancer patient who fought to have the law changed because she said it didn’t allow her to end her life on her own terms.
The requirement to be conscious and mentally sound immediately before the procedure meant that Parker would be denied approval if her condition worsened and she couldn't offer that final consent, she argued.
At the time of Parker's death, Wilson-Raybould said that the regime struck the right balance and wouldn't be changed.
Now, Lametti calls it "one of the most important aspects" of the new law.
"She touched us all and we're glad she didn't die in vain," he said in the interview airing on Sunday.
It was an excerpt from Parker’s final message—posted on the day she decided to follow through with her medically-assisted death—that led to an emotional moment in the House of Commons this week.
Parliamentary secretary to the minister of health Darren Fisher, who was part of the Parliament that passed the initial law, became emotional when reading out some of Parker's final thoughts, particularly when she wrote that she wanted to live longer, but she "lost that opportunity because of a poorly thought out federal law."
"This decision has to come from the patient. No one else. That’s why we the dying should be living day to day until we have to leave," she wrote, and he read, before imploring all members to support the bill.
While there are early indications among the NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green caucuses that the bill will get their support, the legislation doesn’t go as far as some advocates had hoped on two outstanding issues: advance directives for those with illnesses like dementia and the possibility of opening up eligibility to mature minors with mental illnesses.
Lametti says that for now there is "just no consensus" on these issues and they were "always envisaged as difficult cases that we were going to study in the larger parliamentary review," which is scheduled to begin in June.
