This is the speech by Tamara Jansen on Monday April 13 on parliament hill at the EPC rally to almost 100 participants who attended in the pouring rain.

Tamara Jansen (MP)

My friends,

You know, when I first got involved in politics, it wasn’t because I hadsome grand plan to stand on Parliament Hill one day and speak about a bill likethis.

It started much more simply. I got to know my local MP Mark Warawa and loved whathe stood for.  I started helping himorganize town halls, meet with people in the community, and makeconnections.  He was doing all this becausehe was passionate about the vulnerable citizens living among us.

And one of the things Mark cared deeply about was palliative care. Hebelieved, in a very real and practical way, that when people are suffering, ourjob is to come alongside them—to care for them, to support them, to remind themthat they are not alone.

Now, Mark also served on the original committee studying what would becomeMAiD, and I remember him saying—more than once—that we needed to be verycareful because once you open a door like that, you don’t always get to decidehow far it swings.

At the time, some people thought that was a bit of a stretch.

But I don’t think anyone would say that today.

Because here we are, just a few years later, and what began as somethingquite limited has been expanded, piece by piece, to the point where we are now planningto offer MAiD to those whose only condition is mental illness—people who arenot at the end of life.

And somewhere along the way, I found myself thinking: this isn’t what peoplebelieved they were agreeing to.

That’s why I brought forward Bill C-218, building on the work of my colleagueEd Fast—because at somepoint, when you can see where a road is leading, you have to be willing to stopand say, “Let’s take another look at this before we go any further.”

Now, when you take the time to really look at what is being proposed here,and you listen carefully to the people who are working most closely with thosewho are suffering, you begin to understand that this issue is far more complexthan it is often presented by organizations like Dying With Dignity. We haveheard from psychiatrists across this country—highly trained, deeply experiencedprofessionals—who are telling us, quite plainly, that when it comes to mentalillness, there is no reliable way to determine that a condition is truly irremediable.

That word matters, because it is the very foundation upon which MAiD rests.It assumes that we can identify, with confidence, when suffering cannot bealleviated. But in the case of mental illness, the evidence simply does notsupport that level of certainty, and the doctors themselves are telling us so.

And if we pause for a moment and reflect on that, it raises a very seriousconcern. Because what we are being asked to accept is not a clear medicalconclusion, but a judgment—one that carries permanent consequences. Mentalillness does not follow a straight line. It shifts, it responds, it improves,sometimes in ways that surprise even those who have spent years studying it.People who once believed they could not go on have, with time and care, foundtheir footing again. And yet, under this expansion, we are being asked to makelife-ending decisions with no clear certainty that things couldn’t improve withtime and care.

But there is another piece of this that Canadians often don’t realize. Underthe current framework, there is no requirement that a person must have receivedevery reasonable treatment—or even meaningful treatment at all—before beingapproved for MAiD. Just think about that for a moment. We are prepared to offera permanent solution, even in situations where the path to care has not beenfully pursued, or where access to that care may have been limited in the firstplace.

And when you place that reality alongside the circumstances many people areliving in, it becomes much more serious. Because vulnerability is not justabout a diagnosis—it is about the whole situation a person finds themselves in.It is about someone who feels isolated, someone who feels like a burden ontheir family, someone who looks around and quietly begins to wonder whetherothers might be better off without them. Those are not rare thoughts in momentsof deep struggle—they are, in fact, painfully common.

So we have to ask ourselves what happens when a person in that state ispresented with MAiD as an option. Are they making a free and fully unburdenedchoice, or are they responding to a set of pressures—emotional, social, evenfinancial—that are shaping that decision in ways we cannot measure?

At the same time, experts who have spoken to us have raised another concern,one that is difficult to ignore. They are seeing individuals who are alreadystruggling with suicidal thoughts becoming aware that there is now a systemthat can provide the outcome they want.

And in some cases, when one door closes, another can be found—because whathas emerged is a form of doctor shopping, where individuals seek out assessorswho are willing to say yes, even when others have urged caution or continuedcare. Some experts have described this as creating a kind of pull, where MAiDbegins to appear not as a last resort after every avenue has been exhausted,but as an available alternative.

We have already seen the consequences of that. Kiano’s story is one thatmany of you here know well. He was a young manwho was struggling, who needed support, who needed time, and whose motherfought for him—fought the system for him—because she believed, as any parentwould, that her son’s life was worth fighting for. And yet, despite thoseefforts, he was eventually able to find a pathway that led to his death. Howmany more Kiano’s are out there that we have not heard about?

And that is where this becomes more than policy. Because when a systemallows that kind of outcome, it raises a very serious question about whether weare truly protecting the vulnerable, or whether we are making it easier forthem to give up at the very moment they most need someone to stand in the gapfor them.

And so I want to close by simply saying thank you.

Thank you to every one of you who has taken the time to stand here today, andto so many others across this country who may not be on this hill, but who havepicked up the phone, written an email, or had a conversation with their Memberof Parliament because they know this matters.

These things are not always easy to do. They take time, they take courage,and they come from a place of deep concern—not just for ourselves, but forpeople we may never meet.

And that, more than anything, is what this bill represents.

It represents a decision, as a country, to stand with those who are struggling…especially when they cannot stand on their own. It represents a belief thatvulnerability should never become a pathway to being overlooked, or worse, tobeing offered something final when what is still needed is care, time, andhope.

And I want you to know that your voices are being heard.

In Parliament, those calls, those letters, those conversations—they matter.They shape decisions, they influence outcomes. They remind every Member ofParliament that behind every vote are real people, real families, and reallives.

So please, keep going.

Keep speaking.

Keep standing for those who need someone to stand for them.

Together we will reaffirm the kind of country we want to be.  One that truly cares for those mostvulnerable in communities across Canada.

Thank you.

• Tamara Jansen speech in the House of Commons on Bill C -218, preventing euthanasia for mental illness alone (Read).