Canada Slams Brakes On Euthanasia For Mental Illness Indefinitely, Then Votes Down Tory Bill To Ban It Outright

Canada will not extend medically assisted death to people whose only condition is mental illness, Justice Minister Sean Fraser announced Wednesday, as CP24 reports. The Liberals will table legislation this fall to make the exclusion indefinite, although the bill is still being drafted and has no date.

"Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis," Fraser told reporters on Parliament Hill. The expansion is set to take effect in March 2027, after the Trudeau government delayed it in 2024 until after the next federal election.

Fraser said the decision reflects the direction of a special joint parliamentary committee, which heard from more than three dozen witnesses and reported in June. He cited "very real concerns about people who live in communities with inadequate access to mental-health services" and testimony on "a lack of consensus when mental illness is irremediable." He said the government had only "very, very recently finally formalized its position," more than three months after the report, and that it was not "based on where we believe the politics is going to land."

🚨The Liberals have defeated MP Tamara Jansen's Private Member's Bill to stop the upcoming expansion of MAiD to include those with mental disorders. Canadians struggling with mental illness deserve care, support, and hope. We must help people get the support they need and remind them that their lives matter.

— Ned Kuruc (@NedKurucMP) October 7, 2026

MPs also voted Wednesday on a private member's bill from Conservative MP Tamara Jansen that would have amended the Criminal Code to provide that a mental disorder is not a "grievous and irremediable medical condition" for MAID. Fraser thanked Jansen but said the Liberals have "some challenges" with it on a technical level and would vote against it. The bill was defeated 187-141, with the Liberals and Bloc Québécois against and the Conservatives and NDP in favor.

A multi-partisan parliamentary committee recommended against expanding MAID to people with mental illness. The Liberals ignored that recommendation and voted against Tamara Jansen’s Bill C-218, which would have stopped the expansion. https://t.co/sFpjmi0thX

— Michael Guglielmin (@MikeGuglielmin) October 7, 2026

The coming Liberal bill will also allow advance requests for MAID from people diagnosed with an illness that will later take away their capacity. Fraser said those provisions must comply with provincial legislation, and that provinces differ on the issue.

They were going to open the door. Today they said the door stays shut. Sean Fraser, Justice, this afternoon. Canada will not move ahead with medical assistance in dying where mental illness is the only condition. A bill this fall keeps that exclusion indefinite. The Criminal Code had the expansion on a timer. The timer just got pulled. This is the same system doctors have been warning is already too loose. A woman in her 70s was approved because she could no longer cook for her family and felt she had no value. She stepped back because someone talked to her. In 2024, MAID was 16,499 deaths, 5.1 percent of everyone who died in the country. That was the version sold as a last resort for the dying. Holding the mental-illness clause is not a victory lap. It is the government admitting the next step was a mistake before they took it. The bill is the part that counts. A sentence at a microphone is how the last expansion started. #cdnpoli

— JayGen 𝕏 er🇨🇦 (@JayGenXer) October 7, 2026

Disability advocacy group Inclusion Canada welcomed the exclusion for mental illness but opposed advance consent. "Consent at the time is the most basic protection a person has. Parliament should not take it away," said CEO Krista Carr. There are seven sitting weeks left before the winter break.