MLA seeks clarification on doctor-assisted dying in Nunavut

South Baffin MLA David Joanasie wants to know how Nunavut will deal with requests for physician-assisted dying now that it’s effectively legal in Canada. (PHOTO BY LISA GREGOIRE)

Physician-assisted dying is now legal in Canada, but it’s still unclear how the practice would work in Nunavut.

Baffin South MLA David Joanasie raised the issue in the legislative assembly June 6 noting that the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling on assisted dying in Canada is now in effect because the deadline for the passage of federal legislation has lapsed.

“Everyone recognizes that this is a very emotional, very complex and a very difficult issue however, Mr. Speaker, Nunavummiut are entitled to know how their government is going to approach the issue given that physician-assisted suicide is becoming legal in Canada,” Joanasie said.

“Can the minister of health provide a clear explanation today as to what the Department of Health’s next steps are?”

But Health Minister Monica Ell-Kanayuk, speaking through interpreters, had little to offer Joanasie in the way of clarity.

“We are currently working and having dialogue with the different entities on how it’s going to affect us,” Ell-Kanayuk said.

“Today we are negotiating with the department of justice and how we are going to apply this new legislation regarding physician-assisted dying in this country.”

She promised Joanasie that when she had more information, she would table it in the house.

The federal government has not yet passed Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and other laws to outline the rules under which someone facing a life of unbearable suffering can seek help to die from a doctor.

It is currently being debated in the Senate.

Until parliamentarians pass the legislation, the Supreme Court’s landmark Carter decision, which was handed down in February 2015, is in effect.

In that ruling, which involved an 89-year-old woman suffering from a condition called spinal stenosis, the Supreme Court ruled that it is legal for competent adults to seek a medically assisted death if they have “a grievous and irremediable medical condition including an illness, disease or disability, that causes enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual in the circumstances of his or her condition.”

That decision effectively decriminalized medically-assisted dying and gave the federal government a year to enact legislation. The highest court then gave Ottawa an extension since legislators were unable to meet that February 2016 deadline.

But many senators, including Senate Liberals, say they oppose Bill C-14 because it limits assisted dying only to those whose deaths are “reasonably forseeable” — a provision that could exclude a large group of people from exercising the right to die.

That means the bill could be held up in the Senate for a lengthy period of time.

And Canadians are still confused about what to do if they wish to seek medically-assisted death in this grey period between the court ruling and the passage of a federal law defining how it would work.

Ell-Kanayuk said it’s even more complicated because there is no College of Physicians and Surgeons here to come up with interim rules to guide doctors in the territory, which those bodies are doing in other jurisdictions.

So those who wish to seek assisted dying right now in Nunavut would have to go through the courts, the minister said in the legislature.

Ell-Kanayuk said staff in the health department are studying the issue and working with Nunavut’s chief medical officer to figure out how to deal with the potential for assisted suicide in the territory.

Reporters attempted to interview Ell-Kanayuk for further clarification, but her assistant referred all requests to department communication staff.

Joanasie told reporters later that suicide is a big social issue in Nunavut and considering media attention around physician-assisted dying, he thought people here might want to know how the health department will deal with it.

“I think we need to be informed and our Nunavut government should be communicating with the public too on what they’re doing on this, and what it looks like for Nunavummiut,” Joanasie said.

Joanasie said helping an elder, or someone else, to die when it was deemed necessary was a traditional practice in Inuit culture and he supports a person’s right to seek such a solution under controlled circumstances.

“Ultimately it’s up to the individual. It’s a personal choice,” he said.

He said he feels like there could have been more preparation on the part of Nunavut health officials on the topic because the deadline has been looming for a while. He pointed out that the Northwest Territories legislature raised the issue in February.

“I think they’re still in the preliminary stages of testing the waters on this topic,” he said, with reference to Nunavut’s stand on the subject.

“But what can I do?” he said. “It’s food for thought. People need to wrap their minds around it and have some frank discussions and I thought today would be a good day to raise it.”