Doctor-assisted dying a charter issue, all Liberal MPs must support coming law

OTTAWA — In the first test of Justin Trudeau's vow to give backbenchers more freedom, Liberals MPs are being told they must vote in favour of whatever legislation the government comes up with on medically assisted dying.

The prime minister promised during last fall's election campaign that he would make free votes in the House of Commons "standard practice."

However, he spelled out three big exceptions to that rule: Liberal MPs would be required to support the government on any vote to implement elements of the Liberal platform, traditional confidence matters such as the budget and any vote that addresses "our shared values and the protections guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

Now, the government is maintaining that doctor-assisted dying is a charter issue — meaning Liberal MPs will have to support eventual legislation on the matter.

The Supreme Court last year struck down the prohibition on physician-assisted dying, ruling that it violated the right to life, liberty and security of the person as guaranteed under the charter.

It has given the federal government until June 6 to come up with a new law recognizing the right of clearly consenting adults who are enduring intolerable physical or mental suffering to seek medical help in ending their lives.

"It's a charter issue and we respect the right of the Supreme Court to give guidance to the Parliament of Canada," Liberal whip Andrew Leslie said Wednesday.

"The Supreme Court has made the decision. It's our role to support that."

But while the court laid out the broad parameters of a new law, it did not specify how the government should deal with issues like whether to allow people with degenerative diseases such as dementia to sign advance directives to end their lives at some point in the future when they are no long able to give informed consent.

Those are the kinds of issues the special joint parliamentary committee on assisted dying is grappling with as it scrambles to make recommendations for new legislation by the end of this month.

Toronto Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, co-chair of the committee, said how the law should apply to mature minors, those enduring psychological suffering and how it should deal with advanced directives are among the key issues, which weren't directly addressed by the court but which must be sorted out by the committee.

He acknowledged that there can be different views on those issues and that it's difficult to say categorically which are consistent with the charter and which are not.

"We'll know what the charter says when it's been contested in court," Oliphant said.

"I think we take the spirit of the charter and attempt to find a report that honours the spirit of the charter and ensures that the values of Canadians are respected."

He said the committee must also reflect both the letter and the spirit of the Supreme Court ruling, and that spirit "is very much the dignity of the individual, the autonomy of the individual and right of the individual to make those choices."

Oliphant did not take issue with the government's decision to force Liberal backbenchers to support whatever legislation eventually emerges. However, another Liberal MP, Wayne Easter, indicated that he doesn't consider the decision to be final.

"We will have a caucus discussion on those kind of issues and we'll see what the people that were on the committee have to say and we'll see what constituents have to say and we'll make decisions," said the Prince Edward Island MP.

Conservative and New Democrat MPs will be allowed to vote as they see fit, as has traditionally been the case for issues of conscience.

However, Trudeau departed from that tradition two years ago on the politically sensitive issue of abortion. He pronounced that all Liberal MPs, regardless of their personal views, must support a woman's "fundamental right" to choose should the matter come up for a vote. That too was deemed a charter issue.

Any would-be candidates who weren't prepared to abide by that dictum were not allowed to run for the party in the last election.

Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press