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OTTAWA — Justice Minister Sean Fraser says he will take time over the summer to review the work of a committee tasked with determining whether Canada is ready to allow people with mental illness access to medically assisted dying.
Committee co-chair Marcus Powlowski said last week the report would be presented to Parliament on Wednesday to ensure it’s in the government’s hands before the House of Commons takes its summer break.
Fraser said Tuesday he will consider more than the committee’s conclusions and recommendations.
“Importantly to me, I’m also going to be reviewing the witness testimony upon which those recommendations were based,” he said.
“If I’m satisfied the committee has had an opportunity to reach thoughtful conclusions based on the advice of those who are most knowledgeable, most experienced with the issues, then there’s a good chance we may align with the recommendations.”
People with a mental illness as their sole underlying condition are ineligible to access medical assistance in dying, or MAID, under current Canadian law. That exclusion is set to expire next March.
It was first put in place in 2021, when the previous Liberal government expanded eligibility for medical assistance in dying, or MAID, beyond those whose natural deaths were considered reasonably foreseeable. It made that decision in response to a ruling in Quebec Superior Court that found it was unconstitutional to deny people access to MAID if they were suffering but not near the end of their lives.
The initial exclusion of people with mental illness was meant to last a year, but has since been extended twice. As a result, people who are suffering from a psychiatric condition who also have a physical ailment are eligible to be assessed for MAID, but people with only a mental condition remain ineligible.
The committee of senators and MPs was struck to explore whether the country is prepared to end the exclusion next spring.
During a series of meetings held this spring, the committee heard there is a lack of consensus among medical professionals and psychiatrists about what would constitute an irremediable mental illness. In order to receive MAID in Canada, a person must be suffering from a grievous and irremediable medical condition, among other criteria.
Expert witnesses and some of the committee’s members have claimed the committee’s work was biased.
Most of the witnesses called to give testimony were opposed to MAID for people with mental illness. Some people and groups who offered to appear at the committee — including the Canadian Psychiatric Association and people suffering from psychiatric conditions who would like to request MAID — were not called to speak.
Powlowski brushed off those concerns in an earlier interview, saying the witness list was drawn from a list suggested by all committee members.
A group of 90 organizations signed a letter penned by disability advocacy group Inclusion Canada urging Parliament not to allow MAID for people with a mental illness.
Conservative MPs on the committee, including Andrew Lawton, are also staunchly opposed to ending the exclusion.
Lawton would not comment on Tuesday about media reports suggesting the committee plans to recommend an indefinite exclusion for people with psychiatric conditions.
“I can say that I’m on record, and have been for quite a long time, in believing that MAID should never be made available for people with mental illness,” he said.
A previous version of the special parliamentary committee on medical assistance in dying reported to Parliament in 2024 that the country was not ready to go ahead with the expansion.
Three of the five senators on the previous committee wrote a dissenting report arguing that the committee “did not appropriately fulfil its mandate.”
A fourth, Sen. Pierre Dalphond, wrote his own dissenting report that argued the committee had “veered off course” and said it was “likely unconstitutional” to exclude all members of a group from being eligible for MAID.
Dalphond called for Parliament to submit a reference question to the Supreme Court of Canada seeking clarity on the constitutionality of the exclusion.
Fraser has said he is not considering sending a reference question to the Supreme Court about MAID.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2026.
Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press
