B.C. Civil Liberties Association says new assisted-dying law 'cruel and unjust'

The civil liberties group that put forward the legal case for assisted dying in Canada is slamming the recently-passed federal law on the subject. 

The much-debated Bill C-14 received royal assent Friday afternoon after passing a final vote in the Senate earlier in the day. 

Josh Patterson, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said the Supreme Court decision they fought for gave both terminal and non-terminal patients who are suffering intolerably the right to seek assistance to die.  

However, the new law states that only patients who are near death, or where death is "reasonably foreseeable," qualify for a physician-assisted death.

"People are going to be trapped in intolerable suffering — that means people are going to potentially commit suicide early, while they still have the physical capacity to do so, because they're not going to have the legal ability to get a doctor to assist them later," said Patterson.

"The Supreme Court already found that was unjust, that was unconstitutional."

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'Cruel and unjust'

Patterson commended the Senate for trying to expand the rules around who can qualify for a doctor-assisted death. But the legislation that passed in the House of Commons only included some of the Senate's recommendations.

The foreseeable death parameters weren't the only ones Patterson took issue with. He said limiting the right to physician-assisted death only to those with an incurable illness is also an issue.

He cited as an example a cancer patient who doesn't feel they have the strength or the will to go through yet another round of chemotherapy. Under the new law, they would either need to subject their bodies to unwanted treatment or wait until their illness gets worse before they would be eligible. 

"We think that is cruel and unjust," Patterson said. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended his government's decision to reject the Senate's biggest recommended change to the bill. He said the bill balanced rights and freedoms with protecting the rights of "vulnerable Canadians."

Similarly, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said expanding the eligibility requirements could allow for anyone with a serious illness, including soldiers with PTSD or young people with spinal cord injury, to legally be allowed to seek physician-assisted death.

Potential legal battle coming

Patterson said the BCCLA battle the case for five years at the Supreme Court of Canada, and if it has to, it will return there. 

"We going to have to consider our options very closely, looking at the bill and deciding what to do. This is not a bill that can be allowed to stand — it's unconstitutional," he said.

"People who for the last year thought they could see the end approaching and that they were going to have an ability to get relief from their suffering, that's now been closed off to them and they're going to have to wait potentially years more."

With files from Roshini Nair