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After missing one crucial deadline, the Liberal government now has 12 days to enact its disputed assisted-dying legislation before Bill C-14 is left to fester into a painful summer-long political affliction.

With the Commons’ summer recess starting June 23, the government faces serious Senate resistance to parts of the bill, which would decriminalize assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia by doctors and nurse practitioners for eligible, dying patients who want to end their intolerable suffering.

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A Senate committee reported the bill back to the upper chamber Tuesday and third-reading debate is to begin Wednesday. Senators are to propose dozens of amendments over the coming days during sittings that could last well into the night.

The Senate opposition is driven by a mixture of moral objections, an increasingly independent-minded chamber and a recognition that a meaningful contribution to the emotionally charged and historic law could help start to redeem the Senate’s scandalous public image.