Last week was a strange time in Canada, as the unpleasant question of suicide was on most people’s minds. First, there was the horrible news out of a remote Inuit community that their young people were attempting to take their own lives in staggering numbers, leading many of our citizens to wonder just how awful living conditions have to be before you actually don’t see any way out anymore and want to end your own life. Furthermore, it was apparent from the international media that the whole world was following this story which-not surprisingly- makes many Canadians feel ashamed. Secondly, the federal government introduced legislation last Thursday to legalize physician-assisted suicide for Canadians with serious medical conditions, a bill that is likely to pass given the Liberal majority in the House. If it does indeed pass, Canada will join Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany as a country where it will henceforth be viewed as unconstitutional to deny the option of assisted death to consenting adults who are suffering and have an irremediable medical condition.
Like abortion, the legalization of marijuana, and same-sex marriage, assisted suicide is a highly charged issue that no government in the world will ever get total consensus on. Furthermore, it is a highly personal issue, one that has no right and wrong answer but rather widely divergent opinions based on personal belief systems, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, and of course religious convictions. While some attempt to give it a political color, it is in reality significantly more complex than that and is colored by many life and personal experiences. Our Prime Minister began to think a lot about it as his father, arguably the most famous leader this country has ever produced, lay dying in a state of misery as he endured endless aggressive treatments for prostate cancer and Parkinson’s disease. My own mother, who passed away last year after a dynamic and very full life, wanted desperately to travel to Switzerland and end her own life with dignity, surrounded by family, after a terminal cancer diagnosis she strongly believed would lead to suffering and despair. While the plane ticket to Switzerland was reserved and all the paperwork completed, she died quickly and mercifully without a long period of suffering, but like so many Canadians before me it made me do a lot of souls searching on how I felt about this question, as I had always believed deeply that suicide was the human attempt at playing God. I don’t believe that anymore at all, but certainly understand and respect those who do. In short, this is a deeply personal and very complicated question.
This issue was discussed at the Empire Club for the first time by a former Justice Minister, Alan Rock, who addressed the Club under then Empire Club President John Campion on March 24th, 1995, more than 21 years ago. Although the Supreme Court of Canada had upheld the ban on assisted suicide just two years earlier, in 1993, this was clearly an issue that would not go away, in part due to some highly-mediatized cases where individuals who were suffering terribly were begging the courts to let them take their own lives and seeing this refused time and time again. Here is a quote from that 1995 speech:
“As Minister of Justice, I am the cabinet member responsible for the framing of policy relating to the justice system, and for developing new legislation in relation to that system. On the justice side of the agenda, the issues which have involved me in policy discussions range all the way from child support to gun control; the use of DNA evidence in the courtroom to amendments to the Young Offenders Act; sentencing reform to changes in the Human Rights Act; euthanasia and assisted suicide to Criminal Code amendments dealing with prostitution.”
Fast forward to last week’s announcement by the incumbent Justice Minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, and while we are clearly moving at last to legalize this matter, there is still a clear recognition, as the Minister has stated on several occasions already, that this whole dialogue and process will be “troubling”. Some see it as barbaric and further evidence of moral decay, while others are equally convinced that it is a hallmark of a compassionate, caring, and highly-evolved society. Needless to say, reconciling these two camps will be an extremely difficult process, which is why you will not want to miss the panel discussion on this topic which will occur on April 26th at the Royal York Hotel, bringing together the new CEO of Dying with Dignity, a physician and a journalist who has researched this topic extensively and will ask some of the questions that we all still have on what is emerging as one of the most important social issues in Canada this year.
