FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 26, 2025
OTTAWA, ON – Canada has received a critical review by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (the CRPD Committee). Canada has been directed to repeal Track 2 medical assistance in dying (MAiD), raise the “woefully inadequate” Canada Disability Benefit rate, and address regional disparities in how the CRPD is applied.
Track 2 MAiD is for people with disabilities whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable.
The CRPD committee says it “is based on negative, ableist perceptions of the quality and value of the life of persons with disabilities, including that ‘suffering’ is intrinsic to disability rather than the fact that inequality and discrimination cause and compound ‘suffering’ for persons with disabilities.”
“The UN is clear that our country must do better in upholding the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities,” says Krista Carr, CEO of Inclusion Canada, “A top priority is Track 2 MAiD – a real and dangerous threat to the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. It must be repealed.”
Among the key recommendations, the UN Committee has urged Canada to:
- Repeal Track 2 Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), including the planned 2027 expansion to persons whose “sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness,” and reject proposals to expand MAiD to “mature minors” and through advance requests
- Implement a coordinated deinstitutionalization strategy across federal, provincial, and territorial governments with clear timelines and targets
- Withdraw Canada’s interpretative declaration and reservation to Article 12, which limits equal recognition before the law for persons with disabilities and undermines their right to exercise legal capacity
- Establish a national inclusive education action plan to transition from segregated education to quality, inclusive education across all provinces and territories
- Develop a strategy with specific timelines to transition from segregated employment settings such as sheltered workshops to open, inclusive, and accessible employment for persons with disabilities
- Invest significantly in comprehensive measures to address systemic failures in social determinants of health and well-being, including poverty alleviation, accessible housing, prevention of homelessness, and community-based supports
“These recommendations align with what people with intellectual disabilities and their families have been saying for years,” says President of Inclusion Canada, Moira Wilson, “Canada has an opportunity to lead in disability rights, but only if provincial and territorial governments and the federal government take these findings seriously and move swiftly to implement meaningful reforms.”
Inclusion Canada calls on all levels of government to implement the CRPD committee’s key recommendations. We are ready to support these efforts and will continue to advocate for a Canada where everyone belongs.
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For Media Inquiries, please contact:
Marc Muschler, Senior Communications Officer
Inclusion Canada
Email: mmuschler@inclusioncanada.ca
Direct: 416-661-9611 ext. 232
This is on Inclusion Canada website go to the link here
Infografic
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2025
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is right to call for Canada to roll back its expansion of euthanasia, or ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAiD). This also reinforces the fact that MAiD is an election issue in Canada on which every federal political party leader should take a clear stand.
We would echo the Committee’s concerns that Track 2 MAiD in Canada is ‘based on negative, ableist perceptions of the quality and value of the life of persons with disabilities,’ as well as the Committee’s concerns about disproportionate effects of Track 2 MAiD on marginalized Canadians. The Committee rightly notes that MAiD lacks federal oversight and that it been expanded in Canada without enough consultation with Indigenous communities or adequate protections and supports for people living with disabilities.
We continue to be grateful for Canadian disability advocates who not only presented evidence to the UNCRPD, but have been actively raising their concerns on this issue since before the introduction of MAiD and throughout its expansion. This includes the coalition of groups and individual plaintiffs who undertook a Charter challenge in September 2024 against Track 2 MAiD.
Whichever party forms the next federal government should listen to the UNCRPD and Canadian disability advocates and repeal Track 2 MAiD, reverse the upcoming expansion of MAiD for mental illness, and reject further expansion of advance MAiD requests and MAiD for mature minors. Governments at all levels also need to address the need for effective monitoring and assuring compliance with MAiD guardrails while prioritizing provision of care in addressing the health and wellbeing of Canadians, especially those living with disabilities.”
- Rebecca Vachon, PhD, Health Program Director at Cardus
For further information, see the following:
- From Exceptional to Routine: The Rise of Euthanasia in Canada
- Policy Brief: The Risks of Advance Requests for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)
- The State of Pediatric Palliative Care in Canada
- 62% of Canadians Fear the Vulnerable Might Feel Forced into MAiD
MEDIA INQUIRIES
Daniel Proussalidis
Cardus – Director of Communications
613-241-4500 x508
media@cardus.ca
Cardus – Imagination toward a thriving society
Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.
This is on Cardus website go to the link here
United Nation on Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities report
