Professor Trudo Lemmens:

I will quickly respond to that because it is an important thing to clarify. This claim has been put forward in various settings by Professor Downie. I can share with the committee a letter signed by more than 20 law professors, and several constitutional specialists. I had a meeting this morning with the liberal caucus. I invited two colleagues with whom I do not have any professional relation. They do not work specifically on medical assistance in dying. They explained that this claim the Carter supreme court decision somehow set the law in stone, and that everything after was a restriction followed by a restoration, is constitutionally unsustainable. The Truchon decision was a lower court decision, and should normally have been appealed by the supreme court. However, the then minister for justice had voted against his own government's first law when he was a Liberal MP. He felt from the beginning that the law had to be expanded. It was a political use of a lower court decision, which was not appealed, that led to the government saying it needed to expand beyond the law. It was opposed by all disability rights organisations, several indigenous organisations and the United Nations. Human rights experts wrote to parliament to say that going beyond the end-of-life restriction opens up systemic discrimination. It is remarkable. I have been astonished at how the government was able to ignore disability rights concerns, and concerns from indigenous communities, which are faced with high suicide rates in particular communities. This has been ignored. I can share the letter signed by the law professors. I can share articles that make a constitutional analysis. It is not the case that we had an open law. The supreme court explicitly stated that an absolute prohibition on assisted dying is unconstitutional. However, it is now for the federal parliament, the provincial parliaments and the professional colleges to determine how to design the law that responds to the circumstances of the case the supreme court had in front of it. I just wanted to put that on the record, and I can share further information with committee members.