MP Tamara Jansen at a press conference with anti-MAiD advocate Alicia Duncan, MP Andrew Lawton and Graydon Nicholas, former Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. (Photo: office of Tamara Jansen)
A local Member of Parliament is leading the fight to stop the scheduled expansion of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) solely for mental illness.
Tamara Jansen (MP for Cloverdale-Langley City) introduced private members Bill C-218 last summer. It had its first hour of debate in December and its second hour September 23, just two days after the Canadian Parliament returned for the fall 2026 legislative sitting.
Jansen’s moving comments in Parliament are posted on her Facebook page. She refers to a young man who was told he could never qualify for MAiD in Ontario. But he was referred on, and received it from Dr. Ellen Wiebe in BC.
She also described her own little brother’s ordeal. Diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, “he knew he was dying, but wanted to live.” He was offered MAiD six separate times by medical staff in Abbotsford.
But he refused, giving him time “to mend fences, make friends with the people at the hospice, say goodbye to his family.”
She said:
The is why Bill C-218 is necessary – because not everyone will have the will to fight the way my brother fought. Not everyone will have the strength to say ‘no’ six times. And when someone is sick, frightened, depressed or unable to see any hope for tomorrow, surely the responsibility of our medical system is not to reinforce the despair, but to protect them while they’re vulnerable and to help them find their way back to hope.
This is particularly true when we’re talking about mental illness. . . .
Go here to see the five minute clip.
MPs are expected to vote on whether to support the bill in principle on October 7. If Bill C-218 passes this vote, it will continue on to be studied by a parliamentary committee. If it does not pass this vote, it will not survive.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada stated in its Update Newsletter September 22:
The law allowing MAiD for mental illness was passed in 2021, with a delay built-in before the expansion would take effect. It has been delayed twice.
This expansion of MAiD is now set to take effect in less than six months, on March 17, 2027, unless a bill is passed to stop it. Bill C-218 would reverse the law that allows MAiD for mental illness.
A parliamentary committee has recommended indefinitely pausing the expansion of MAiD for mental illness. The Justice Minister has been considering what he will do about MAiD for mental illness over the summer and has not yet said whether the government will follow the recommendation.
More than one in 20 deaths are already attributed to MAiD.
A September 21 article by Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, pointed out that the majority of Canadians do not support MAiD for mental illness:
Mario Canseco, the President of Research Co, was published by Business Intelligence for BC on October 30 with new polling indicating that the majority of Canadians do not support (MAiD) euthanasia for mental illness.
At this point [Canseco wrote], only an adult with a grievous and irremediable medical condition can seek medical assistance in dying in Canada. An expansion that would cover mental illness is expected to come into place in March 2027. Just over two in five Canadians (42 per cent, down one point) believe mental illness is a good reason for a person to request medical assistance in dying.
To pass, Bill C-218 needs Members of Parliament from all political parties to support it.
That is the problem for Jansen and Bill C-218. Private members bills don’t often become law, largely because MPs generally vote along party lines.