Liberals to outline plans on assisted dying ahead of mental illness expansion

The Liberal government is expected Wednesday to publicly take a position on whether it believes Canada is ready to allow people with mental illness to access assisted dying. 

Justice Minister Sean Fraser said he and Health Minister Marjorie Michel will  outline the "path forward," before the House of Commons votes Wednesday on a private member's bill which would block expanding assisted dying for people suffering from mental illnesses.

As it stands, people who are suffering from a grievous and irremediable mental illness are set to become eligible to be assessed for medical assistance in dying in March.

A committee made up of members of Parliament and Senators studied whether the country is prepared for that to happen last spring. 

The committee's final report in June, endorsed by Conservative and Liberal members, recommended the government indefinitely exclude people with mental illness from accessing MAID. 

The committee heard from witnesses who argued that it is not possible to reliably determine when a mental illness is irremediable. It also heard from a number of witnesses opposed to assisted dying in general. 

Several senators who sat on the committee wrote their own opinion, arguing its process was flawed and biased.

Fraser said Tuesday that his office sought opinions from people with a wide range of perspectives after the report was released. 

"I feel confident that we've heard a range of different views in the development of the policy process," he said. 

The Conservative private member's bill, championed by MPs Tamara Jansen and Andrew Lawton, would block the expansion from happening. It is scheduled for a vote at second reading in the House of Commons Wednesday — MPs could kill the bill with a no vote, while a yes vote would send it to committee for further study.

Fraser would not say how the government plans to vote on the legislation.

During a debate at second reading in September, Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux, who is parliamentary secretary to government House leader Steven MacKinnon, said, "at the end of the day, I do not necessarily believe the exclusion is the way to go."

Lamoureux pointed out that the government expanded the assisted-dying regime in 2021 as a result of a court decision in Quebec. 

That law allowed, for the first time since MAID became legal in 2016, people whose deaths were not reasonably foreseeable to seek a medically assisted death. It temporarily excluded people with only a mental illness to allow further study of the eligibility criteria. That exclusion has been extended until next March. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2026.

By Sarah Ritchie | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.