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Ben Woodfinden: The euthanize-the-mentally-ill crowd wants to override democracy

They can't convince the people, so they want the Supreme Court to force it instead

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This month the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying tabled its report on whether Canadians whose only medical condition is a mental illness should be eligible to be put to death by the state, and reached a single recommendation: don’t, indefinitely. The Globe and Mail’s André Picard was unimpressed. The committee, he wrote last week, shows the “can’t do” spirit of our legislators, and since the courts will settle it eventually, the minister should “get it over with” and refer it to the Supreme Court. Judges, he concluded, “actually make reasoned decisions. Something our politicians seem to struggle with mightily.” 

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Sen. Kristopher Wells agreed. “Picard is right again,” he posted. “There was no consensus and the final report and recommendation have no credibility.” LINK?

Ben Woodfinden: The euthanize-the-mentally-ill crowd wants to override democracy Back to video

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The complaint from Picard and Wells is not that Parliament could not decide. It decided. Seventeen members heard 44 witnesses and reached a recommendation. The complaint is that they decided the wrong way, and the cure proposed is to give the question to nine judges who cannot be voted out and might decide differently than the committee. 

Picard’s complaint is that politicians cannot reason and judges can, so the........

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