'Weighing our options': Ottawa open to further pause to expand assisted dying rules

The federal government is considering whether to pause its original plan to broaden the rules that govern medically assisted dying so they include patients whose only underlying condition is a mental disorder. "We're weighing our options," Justice Minister Arif Virani said Thursday. It would be the second time the federal Liberals have hit pause on the plan.

The first came in February, when the government decided to impose a one-year delay amid widespread public and political concern. That decision established a new deadline of March 2024, one that now appears in jeopardy. Cabinet will consider the input of a joint parliamentary committee, as well as medical experts and other stakeholders, Virani said. "We'll evaluate all of that comprehensively to make a decision whether we move ahead on March 17, or whether we pause," he told The Canadian Press in a wide-ranging interview. Both options are "on the table," he added.

Virani says the first step will be to evaluate what a special joint committee of MPs and senators studying the matter will recommend. The committee was reconvened after the government imposed the original delay. Members of the committee have adopted the report but have until the end of January to present it to the House of Commons, co-chair René Arseneault, a Liberal MP from Quebec, said in a statement. "Canadians should be following what that committee recommends, because we're very keen on ensuring that the system is ready," Virani said. "That will inform what we do on March 17, whether we move ahead with mental illness as a sole underlying condition or not. "The decision to seek medical assistance to end one's life is a "fundamental personal choice," he added. The government, he said, is "very actively listening" to those voices that say Canada is not ready for an expansion into mental illness.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has already committed to scrapping the expansion plans if he forms the next government.