It was heartbreaking to learn that Jean Truchon, who fought so
valiantly to expand assisted-dying laws in Canada, felt forced to
advance his medically assisted death procedure from June 2020 to
early April. He chose to do so because of the COVID-19 pandemic and
his inability to spend time with loved ones prior to his scheduled
date for medically assisted death.
In late February, the federal government announced proposed
changes to the legislation on Medical Assistance in Dying
("MAID") in the wake of the Superior Court of
Quebec's decision in Truchon v Procureur in September 2019,
where Jean challenged Canada's existing MAID legislation for
restricting people who were not near death from accessing medically
assisted-dying. The Quebec Court agreed with his position and
declared parts of the federal and Quebec laws on assisted dying
unconstitutional and tasked the federal and Quebec legislature with
revisiting the relevant provisions on access to MAID and to pass
new
