• On May 13, 2026, CLF submitted a letter to members of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (“AMAD Committee”), urging them to permanently halt the expansion of assisted death (“MAID”) for mental illness, currently scheduled to take effect on March 17, 2027 (read more).

• On November 16, 2023, CLF submitted a brief to the AMAD Committee, urging it to reverse Canada’s proposed expansion of MAID for mental illness. Recent studies have highlighted serious concerns around lack of access to care for mental health in Canada. Instead of prioritizing MAID for psychiatric conditions, CLF's brief urges Parliament to "prioritize mental health supports that offer all Canadians the ability to live with dignity" (read more).

• On October 21, 2022, Derek Ross, CLF’s Executive Director & General Counsel, was invited to appear before Parliament's AMAD Committee. The Committee undertook a “statutory review of the provisions of the Criminal Code relating to Medical Assistance in Dying and their application”, including issues relating to mature minors, advance requests, mental illness, the state of palliative care in Canada and the protection of Canadians with disabilities. CLF previously filed a written brief with the Committee.

During his presentation, Derek shared CLF’s concerns that “palliative care and disability supports were not accessible in hundreds of MAID cases thus far”. He recommended that patients not just be “informed” of care options, but offered consultations with professionals who provide care to relieve their suffering, including palliative care. He also urged the Committee to reject any proposals to allow euthanasia for infants with disabilities. You can watch Derek’s intervention here (beginning at the 8:52 mark) (read more).

• In 2023, a peer-reviewed book, Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) in Canada: Key Multidisciplinary Perspectives was published. Derek Ross, Executive Director and General Counsel for Christian Legal Fellowship and Deina Warren, Director of Legal Affairs at the Canadian Centre for Christian Charities, contributed a chapter on “The Importance of Conscience as an Independent Protection”.

• On May 14, 2021, CLF made written submissions to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) concerning its medical assistance in dying and human rights policies, as part of a CPSO consultation. Among other concerns, CLF urged the CPSO to modify its “effective referral” requirements for MAID, especially in light of Bill C-7's expansion of MAID for many more patients, including those who are not dying.

• On May 28, 2021, CLF submitted a response to the World Medical Association’s (WMA) proposed amendments to the International Code of Medical Ethics. Our submissions cautioned against the adoption of a statement in support of mandatory effective referrals in cases of conscientious objection. 

• On September 1, 2021, CLF made written submissions to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which has been examining how to “build back better” from the COVID-19 pandemic from a disability rights perspective. CLF commented on the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and Canada’s expanding MAiD regime, including the disproportionate impact that restrictions have had on persons with disabilities, the expansion of eligibility of MAiD to include disability-related suffering, and the rise in patients seeking MAiD due to suffering caused by “isolation/loneliness”.
  
  See more on CLF’s ongoing work to protect freedom of conscience in healthcare below.

Part I: CLF’s submissions to the Senate re: Bill C-7 (expanding euthanasia)

Part II: Questions from the Senate re: Bill C-7 (expanding euthanasia)

In 2017, CLF urged the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) to consider Canada’s most vulnerable and broader societal commitments in its review of euthanasia expansion as it relates to mature minors, advance requests, and where mental illness is the sole underlying medical condition (known as MAID MD-SUMC). In this submission, CLF highlighted its longstanding advocacy dating back to 2011 (with hyperlinks to facta, briefs, and background papers) on matters relating to assisted suicide in Canada.

An open letter was signed by over 140 lawyers, law students, and others - including the Hon. David Onley, former Lt. Gov. of Ontario - defending the right to life of all Canadians.

Read more about the letter and see the list of signatories here. You can also read the letter below, in English and French.

Read the Statement in English

Lisez la déclaration en français

CLF intervened in the matter of Truchon c Procureur général du Canada, submitting that the requirement that death be “reasonably foreseeable” in order to access MAID was both a valid and important safeguard in fulfilling the legislation’s objectives (read CLF’s factum in French, as well as the unofficial English translation). Special thanks to Robert Reynolds for preparing and writing this factum, and representing CLF before the court.

CLF pointed to evidence in the record, including experts who expressed concerns that an open-ended euthanasia regime would undermine suicide-prevention efforts, as well as evidence from Holland which showed an increase in suicide generally following the legalization of euthanasia in that country. CLF quoted legal expert Prof. Trudo Lemmens:

CLF also made detailed legal submissions about why the provisions were rationally connected and proportionate to the objectives of the law, and therefore constitutional.

Ultimately, the Québec Superior Court struck down the legal requirement that MAID be available only to those whose natural death is “reasonably foreseeable” (read CLF’s analysis here).

Despite over 65 disability rights organizations and allies urging the federal government to appeal the Truchon ruling, the decision was not appealed. This letter emphasized how the “end of life criterion” struck a careful balance and was designed to counter the message “that disability-related suffering, largely caused by lack of support and inequality, justifies the termination of a person’s life”. This submission was subsequently endorsed by over 250 physicians, who stressed the need to establish better support systems for patients before expanding MAID eligibility.

CLF was one of the few organizations to intervene at all three levels of court in the Carter case, which challenged the provisions of the Criminal Code that made it a criminal offence to end of the life of another person.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada partially struck down the provisions on the basis of section 7 of the Charter, finding that a blanket criminalization of assisted suicide violates individuals’ right to security of the person. This violation was not justified under section 1 of the Charter, being a broader than necessary means for achieving Parliament’s legislative objective - which the SCC interpreted as protecting vulnerable persons from being induced to commit suicide in a moment of weakness.

CLF was also actively involved in post-Carter consultations before the federal Panel on Assisted Suicide.

CLF has intervened in the matter of O’Neill v British Columbia (Minister of Health), which involves a constitutional challenge to a religious accommodation, adopted by the B.C. Government, that protects faith-based organizations from being forced to have MAID performed within their premises. The plaintiffs argue that this policy imposes additional burdens and distress on patients who must be transferred elsewhere to receive MAID, and that these burdens are rooted in religious beliefs which those patients do not share.

In Carter, the case that led to the decriminalization of MAID in Canada, the courts only said that willing physicians may offer MAID in some circumstances, not that all health-care communities must do so, contrary to their medical ethics. In fact, the Supreme Court of Canada specifically recognized that “a physician’s decision to participate in assisted dying is a matter of conscience and, in some cases, of religious belief” and that “the Charter rights of patients and physicians will need to be reconciled”.

CLF’s submissions as a friend of the court focussed on the importance of achieving true reconciliation and balancing of competing Charter rights (read more here). We await the Court’s judgment.