UMVA has learned that over 90 disability and mental‑health advocacy groups have united in a bold protest against Canada’s planned expansion of medically assisted dying to those whose only condition is mental illness.
In a letter forged by Inclusion Canada, the signatories addressed the Prime Minister, the Justice Minister, the Health Minister, and the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying, demanding the government halt the March 17, 2027 rollout of a new “track two” that would allow people with mental disorders to seek lethal injection.
The letter argues that this new track “violates the rights of persons with disabilities,” singling out a vulnerable group for death while denying them the help they need to live with dignity.
More than a hundred organizations—from the March of Dimes to the Canadian Association of the Deaf—have stamped their names on the plea, warning that expanding MAID to mental illness will only deepen stigma and erode trust in the healthcare system.
For five years, Canadian MAID policy limited eligibility to those facing a terminal illness or a natural death, a “track one” that many saw as compassionate and measured.
But the new legislation would carve out a second track for those whose death is not foreseeable, a move that has sparked outrage across the globe and alarmed human‑rights bodies.
Health Canada’s own definition of suicide—“the intentional act of ending one’s life”—places MAID for mental illness squarely within that category, a point the letter stresses as a legal and moral concern.
In 2024, 16,499 Canadians chose medically assisted dying, making it the fourth most common cause of death that year, a staggering figure that the advocates say would balloon if track two were approved.
“If more Canadians understood the numbers and the realities of expanding MAID to mental illness, they would be very, very concerned,” said Inclusion Canada’s CEO, who also warned that the new policy would undermine the dignity of people with disabilities.
UMVA can exclusively reveal that the letter’s authors fear a future where those with mental disorders are trapped between a society that refuses to provide adequate support and a legal framework that offers them an irreversible exit.
The activists’ call to action reverberates beyond Canada’s borders, urging lawmakers to protect the most vulnerable before the law takes its final form.
