Committee set to recommend against allowing MAID for mental illness in report today

A parliamentary committee is expected to recommend against extending eligibility for medical assistance in dying to people with a mental illness in a report to the House of Commons set to be tabled Wednesday.

Individuals with a mental illness as their sole underlying condition have so far been excluded from medical assistance in dying. That exclusion is set to end next March unless Parliament intervenes with legislation.

Read more:

• One of Canada’s most prominent MAID providers reflects on divisive decade
• Canada’s MAID laws on ‘a collision course’ as Parliament awaits legal challenges
• Justice minister says he will review MAID committee testimony before making decision

A committee of MPs and senators held hearings this spring to determine whether the country is prepared for that exclusion to end.

Most of the witnesses who testified urged the committee to permanently exclude people with psychiatric conditions from accessing MAID.

Many of them, including a number of psychiatrists, argued there is no consensus in the medical field on how to determine whether a patient has any prospect of getting better. That is a key condition for MAID eligibility — a patient must be suffering from a grievous and irremediable medical condition.

A source with knowledge of the report — who was not authorized to speak about it before it was made public — told The Canadian Press the committee was divided but the majority is set to recommend a permanent exclusion.

Committee co-chair Marcus Powlowski, a Liberal MP, said he could not comment on the recommendations before they were made public.

He noted that Wednesday marked the 10-year anniversary of the legalization of assisted dying, which he said “has been a positive thing.”

“I absolutely believe that a compassionate society allows MAID for people with terminal illness, people that are really experiencing intolerable suffering. Certainly there’s going to be questions as to how far to go, how far that should be expanded,” he said.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser said he plans to review the committee’s recommendations — and the testimony that informed them — before deciding what the government should do.

“This isn’t easy work, which is why I’m going to take the time necessary to fully understand the recommendations of the committee and the evidence that underpins those recommendations,” he said Wednesday.

Advocacy group Dying With Dignity Canada has raised concerns about the testimony heard by the committee. It has claimed the committee selected witnesses who were opposed to allowing MAID for people with mental illness and chose not to hear from people with mental disorders who wanted to speak about why they would seek a MAID assessment.

In a statement before the report was released, Dying With Dignity Canada’s CEO Helen Long said she hopes Fraser will seek out other opinions before making a decision.

“We hope he will also consider the expertise of the Canadian Psychiatric Association — who were not asked to testify — and those with lived experience who were largely excluded from the conversation,” Long wrote.

The organization says it believes excluding people with mental illness violates their Charter rights, and is championing a case in Ontario court to challenge the exclusion.

That’s not the only active court case touching on Canada’s MAID law.

Another Ontario case led by Inclusion Canada seeks to repeal what’s known as Track 2 MAID, which involves people who are suffering from a grievous and irremediable medical condition but who are not near the end of their natural lives.

Inclusion Canada is arguing that policy is discriminatory because only people with disabilities are eligible for Track 2 MAID.

Both cases are in the early stages, and both advocacy groups have said they’re prepared to take them all the way to the country’s top court.

Fraser has said he is not considering a reference to the Supreme Court of Canada to clarify its unanimous 2015 ruling that led to legalization of MAID.

In 2024, a previous version of the parliamentary committee studying MAID for mental illness issued a report that concluded the country was not prepared to allow the exclusion to end.

In a dissenting report, Sen. Pierre Dalphond called for the federal government to ask the Supreme Court for a reference to settle the issue legally.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2026.