OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life Conservative MP Mark Strahl said the federal Liberal government’s planned expansion of Canada’s euthanasia laws to include those with mental illness needs to be rejected “entirely” as a matter of “life and death” to protect those who are vulnerable.
“We don’t just need to delay this dangerous expansion of assisted suicide. We need to reject it entirely,” Strahl said during a debate Monday in the House of Commons over the Liberal government’s planned expansion of Canada’s assisted laws.
“Conservatives will never give up on those experiencing mental illness. We believe that recovery is possible, and we should focus on offering treatment and help, not assisted death to those who are suffering.”
On Monday, Canadian MPs debated a bill introduced by Minister of Justice David Lametti two weeks ago that will delay the expansion of Canada’s euthanasia laws to include those suffering solely from mental illness and possibly “mature minors.”
The bill was introduced after intense pushback from pro-life and mental health groups.
Bill C-39 is titled An Act to amend An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying) and is now in its second reading.
The text of the bill simply states that Canada’s expanded medical assistance in dying (MAiD) rules allowing those with mental illness to obtain euthanasia will now come into force on “March 17, 2024” instead of this month.
Strahl noted that in “too many cases” vulnerable Canadians are being “offered assisted suicide instead of the support they need and want from the system.”
“Now the Liberals want to have those suffering from mental illness to their assisted suicide regime as well. After months of dragging their feet, they believe to be brought forward to delay to this reckless idea,” he added.
Canada’s MAiD laws were originally set to be expanded in March 2023 to apply to those suffering solely from mental illness and even children deemed “mature minors.”
The expansion was to come as part of the 2021 passage of Bill C-7, which further liberalized the practice of euthanasia after it was first legalized in 2016.
However, after pushback from pro-life groups, conservative politicians, and others, the federal government decided to delay the introduction of the full effects of Bill C-7 until 2024.
Getting rid of the bill is a matter of ‘life and death’ to protect the vulnerable
Strahl stressed that a simple delay in expanding Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAiD) laws is not good enough.
“This is a matter of life and death, and we must act to protect vulnerable people once and for all,” he said.
Strahl has a “green light” rating by Campaign Life Coalition for being pro-life and pro-family.
In a statement posted two weeks ago, CPC MP Michael Cooper, who serves as the Conservative Shadow Minister of Democratic Reform, said on behalf of his party that the Liberal’s one-year delay of medical assistance in dying “for mental illness is an admission of failure.”
The letter called upon the Liberal government to scrap in its entirety a planned expansion of the nation’s euthanasia laws to include those with mental illness.
To combat Bill C-39, CPC MP Ed Fast introduced a new private member Bill C-314 last week that would repeal the expansion of Canada’s euthanasia laws to those suffering from mental illness.
CPC leader Pierre Poilievre, while pro-abortion, has been critical of the expansion of Canada’s MAiD laws, saying recently in the House of Commons: “Will the Liberals recognize that we need to treat depression and give people hope for better lives rather than ending their lives?”
Pro-life advocates at the national level have long sounded the alarm over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government’s euthanasia program, which has continued to increase in its permissiveness.