Reporter: Is your intention to still move ahead with MAID for mental illness just within a longer time frame?
Liberal Health Minister Mark Holland: That's correct. I mean the issue here is again not whether or not somebody, look we're talking about there are people who have for decades been trapped in mental torture, being in a horrific situation where they have tried everything and exhausted all avenues and under their own recognizance are saying that they want access to MAID. What we're saying is that in order for somebody in that intractable situation who is in a mental health nightmare, you know, after trying everything, they should have that right. But the system needs to be ready and we need to get it right. The system is not ready at this time and we need more time.
Reporter: Was it irresponsible of you though to pass this legislation when you now know that the system is not ready for it?
Mark Holland: Well, absolutely not. I think this is a hard conversation. You know, when you look at the people who are suffering and who are asking for this relief, we take that deeply seriously. I think the question, though, is making sure before we move forward, and the date is on March 17th, to really ascertain and understand, you know, is the system ready and to get it right. And I can tell you when I became Health Minister six months ago, the experts I was speaking to were saying the system was ready. But as we probe that more deeply and as we had deeper conversations around the level of training, how many health professionals had been trained to the curriculum that was there, the adherence to that curriculum, it became clear talking to provinces, territories, CAMH, the Canadian Mental Health Association and others, that we aren't there yet. And so we're taking the appropriate measure of taking another pause.
Other Trudeau minion: Can I just add on that point? So what we've always tried to do with respect to medical assistance in dying since 2016 is always calibrate two fundamental ideas. The autonomy of the individual in terms of dignified decisions about the timing of their own passing, coupled with protecting vulnerable communities, vulnerable individuals. That's the balance we've always tried to strike. With respect to your specific question, what I would say to you is that clearly what the legislation we've enacted thus far has done is it has spurred the health care system and the health professions to come up with a response. So we've got curriculum that's now been set. But what Mr. Holland is articulating is that we need the take-up of that curriculum, we need the take-up of that training. What we've heard loud and clear, what that committee heard loud and clear for a second time no less is that those health care system actors are not ready and we need to be attentive to that.
“They’ll get it right”.
Wouldn’t it be tragic if someone suffered for years from the mental torture of clinical depression, and was never told about Vitamin D, but they were offered MAID?
Further reading:
