Anthony RotaMP Anthony Rota says rules need to be put in place when it comes assisted dying.  

New legislation on medically assisted dying is being introduced Thursday by the federal government, more than a year after the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s ban on assisted suicide.

The new law sets out numerous conditions on who is eligible to access medical help to end their life, including people with an incurable illness or disability or someone who is in an advanced state of irreversible decline.  

    The legislation is more restrictive than what the court deemed, limiting doctor assisted death to adults who are suffering intolerably and for whom death is reasonably foreseeable.
    Critics say that will only force already suffering people to endure legal challenges.

Rota says with the Supreme Court making their decision, they’ve basically legalized assisted dying in Canada. 

“What we’re doing now is trying to put together some parameters so that it’s done in a respectful way and a well thought out way.”  

He says he doesn’t want to see what happened with abortion, when it was passed by a previous Conservative government, but there was no rules put in place.  

“If we don’t put together rules now, we’re going to have a system that is very loose.”
Meantime, Rota also commented on the situation in Attawapiskat. 

He says Health Canada has dispatched mental health counsellors to the First Nations community with more back-up on the way.  

Rota also says the House of Commons held an emergency debate on the issue earlier this week.  

He says a lot of good points came out. 

Rota says he believes there’s a real will in government and the Canadian population to “resolve the issues that have been plaguing us for 150 to 200 years.”