{"id":697623,"date":"2026-06-11T11:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697623\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:43:09","slug":"parliamentary-committee-to-deliver-conclusions-on-expanding-maid-to-people-with-mental-illness-on-june-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697623\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliamentary committee to deliver conclusions on expanding MAID to people with mental illness on June 17"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Young carer giving helping hands for the elderly womanObencem\/Getty Images\/iStockphoto<\/p>\n

The parliamentary committee studying whether people whose sole medical condition is mental illness should be eligible for medical assistance in dying is expected to deliver its recommendations on June 17, 10 years to the day that MAID became legal in Canada. <\/p>\n

The report date was revealed Wednesday by Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski, one of the chairs of the joint House of Commons and Senate committee that is studying the issue. The committee met for nearly four hours late Tuesday night to consider its conclusions.<\/p>\n

Mr. Powlowski and other MPs on the committee declined to discuss the specific recommendations as the meeting was held behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

The Globe and Mail has previously reported<\/a> that the government anticipates the committee will recommend against expanded access, based on evidence presented in hearings and questions from MPs and senators over the course of this spring. <\/p>\n

The government is prepared to follow that recommendation and further delay the expansion, The Globe has reported. <\/p>\n

The potential expansion has emerged as one of the most contentious policy debates since MAID was legalized for those whose deaths were reasonably foreseeable.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In 2021, the government opened up MAID to people who were not facing imminent death, but the legislation carved out a temporary exclusion for mental illness. This meant people without physical ailments were still unable to qualify for an assisted death.<\/p>\n

That exemption was extended twice by then-prime-minister Justin Trudeau and is currently set to end in March of next year.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said<\/a> he\u2019s waiting for the committee\u2019s report before taking a position. <\/p>\n

A new public opinion survey conducted by Nanos Research for The Globe found 57 per cent of those questioned believe it would be acceptable or somewhat acceptable for the government to expand access to MAID for people whose only condition is mental illness.<\/p>\n

The survey found that 79 per cent of Canadians support MAID for those with a terminal illness and whose natural death is near, while 64 per cent support access for those with a serious and incurable disease who are experiencing intolerable suffering. <\/p>\n

Nanos conducted the telephone and online survey of 1,044 Canadians between May 31 and June 2. The margin of error for the survey is three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.<\/p>\n

Ontario doctor cautioned over MAID complaints can continue practice under supervision, regulator rules<\/a><\/p>\n

Nik Nanos, founder of Nanos Research, said the survey shows a clear difference in support for MAID based on age: Those older than 55 are more likely to be supportive of access to MAID as a whole than those who are younger.<\/p>\n

But he said the numbers also show the public is cautious about the expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe numbers basically say that Canadians are ready to have a discussion about expanding it to mental illness, but there\u2019s not a lot of detail there in terms of what the conditions are, because it\u2019s not as cut and dry as dealing with terminal illness,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The joint House and Senate committee has until October to table its findings, but has suggested it wants to get the recommendations to the government prior to Parliament rising for the summer. That way, Ottawa can have any legislation necessary to deal with the expansion ready for Parliament to consider in the fall.<\/p>\n

When asked Wednesday whether MPs and senators had reached firm conclusions about what the government should do, Mr. Powlowski responded: \u201cI can\u2019t comment.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Young carer giving helping hands for the elderly womanObencem\/Getty Images\/iStockphoto The parliamentary committee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260,13849,111],"class_list":["post-697623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-pleasemod","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}