An open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney on MAID
May I steal a quick moment of your time before I die? The Special Joint Parliamentary Committee on Medically Assisted Dying (AMAD) wouldn’t hear me, but I’m hoping you will, Mr. Prime Minister.
The following refers to medical assistance in dying for mental illness as the sole underlying medical condition (MAID MI-SUMC), and AMAD, the committee tasked with studying the eligibility for medical assistance in dying of those whose sole condition is mental illness.
I’ve spent 35 years of my life receiving treatment for my chronic, serious, and irremediable mental illnesses. I’ve been treated in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Montreal. I’ve been in psychiatric hospitals, wards, and rehab centres. Like you, I’m Catholic. I’ve prayed with brothers, sisters, and priests. There is meaning in suffering, yes, but do you mean to prolong it? The choices your government is making could stop my suffering and allow me to end my life peacefully, and on my terms. But your choices could also extend my suffering even more. I apologize for being politically inconvenient—my existence really complicates your simplistic narrative by not conforming to a stereotype.
Neither illness nor poverty discriminate. When I made money, I was too privileged. Now I live below the poverty line, so I’m too vulnerable. When I make a logical argument, I’m too well, and when I'm sick, I’m too sick. If I were to be diagnosed with cancer tomorrow, I could refuse treatment and be eligible for MAID. Can I make life and death decisions, or not? If yes, this is discrimination. If not, I’ve wasted my life seeing psychiatrists. Protection isn’t exclusion and equal rights aren’t special restrictions.
AMAD recently wrapped up several months of testimony. The members of the committee are now writing a report which will include a recommendation to you as to how to handle MAID eligibility for people with serious and irremediable mental illnesses. The video of the committee’s final meeting with witnesses offers a vivid account of the procedural failures shaping their report. In Canadian law and medicine do real numbers matter? AMAD makes decisions based on assumptions. Every other branch of medicine goes case by case.
When asked about including people with lived experience with mental illnesses, the committee co-chairs (Liberal MP Marcus Polowski) said to the press “at whose expense?” This committee prioritized hearing from an anti-MAID MI-SUMC Dutch psychiatrist over hearing from important Canadian organizations like the Canadian Psychiatric Association, or people like me. Adults with severe and persistent mental illness apparently don’t qualify as authoritative witnesses to our own lives. Of 44 witnesses, there was one woman to represent all people with lived experience, and she was outspokenly against MAID MI-SUMC.
This explains why this committee continues to be clueless after half a decade, confusing crime with a compassionate answer to a death that’s inevitable and talking about “seductive death culture” aren’t arguments. We don't need an aesthetic for death. I was assessed twice. They combed through my medical history, consulted my physicians, met several checkpoints, and a long chain of command. It took months.
I’d like to remind you, Mr. Prime Minister, that when MAID became legal in Canada, through the Carter v Canada decision, there were no qualifiers around individuals with mental illness. Indeed, of the nine countries around the world that offer MAID, Canada is the only one to discriminate against people with mental illness by specifically preventing them from accessing MAID. Health authorities in these other countries confirm that the number of MAID MI-SUMC approvals are consistently tiny, because the system works. MAID for persons whose sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness would directly affect only a minuscule fraction of Canadians.
For those of us whose suffering would finally end with our inclusion, your decision is everything. I'm sorry for thinking you’re stalling because you can. If you insist on waiting to take a stance or taking the AMAD report seriously, please consider the fact that they didn’t. They couldn't feign respect.
In no uncertain terms, the co-chairs of AMAD owe people who suffer from severe mental illness an apology. With all due respect, please stop wasting time and tax-payer money. It’s not just killing people like me, it’s killing my family. Do we value equality and body autonomy in Canada, or not? You can be cautious and courageous at the same time.
Sincerely,
Claire Elyse Brosseau is a 49-year-old Canadian actress, writer and stand-up comedian who lives in Toronto. In August of 2024, Brosseau, Dr. Patricia Smith, and Dying With Dignity Canada, filed a court challenge with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice arguing that the exclusion of individuals living with grievous and irremediable mental illness from medical assistance in dying (MAID) eligibility is discriminatory.
The Hill Times