Thread by @CatherineFrazee

1/9
The deadline for appealing Truchon & Gladu decision is Friday Oct 18. It appears that the strategy of our elected leaders is to quietly run out the clock. That is within their power to do. What is within our power, is to bear witness to their reprehensible conduct. #elxn43

2/9
If this decision to remove a fundamental safeguard from #MAiD is NOT appealed, a profound change of great consequence to every Canadian, will have been made by a single judge in a provincial lower court. There are two dangerous outcomes from this decision… #elxn43 #cdnpoli

3/9
1st, decision declares that objectives of fostering equality, avoiding disability stereotypes & preventing suicide are “too broad” to serve as basis for legislation. 2nd, decision strikes down requirement that natural death be “reasonably foreseeable” in order to die by #MAiD

4/9
Effectively, living with disability in Canada will now be optional. Disabled Canadians who cannot endure the byproducts of ableism: stigma, isolation, impoverishment, and exclusion from all that makes life meaningful, will now be able to request and receive an assisted death.

5/9
Decision in French, is 197 pp long. No English translation available.
In para 634, judge rejects current #MAiD law because it forces people to live when life no longer has purpose to them. No discussion of social forces that thwart flourishing and rob life of purpose. #elxn43

6/9
Our political leaders have given no explanation for abandoning the defence of our current #MAiD law, and the people it protects. Understandably, they are preoccupied by the swirl of a gruelling and high-stakes election campaign. #elxn43

7/9
That is precisely why, under the “caretaker convention”,
lower court decisions are routinely appealed during an election: a government at the end of its mandate must refrain from controversial and irreversible policy decisions. See bit.ly/33HikTT

8/9
Why this departure from basic norms of responsible governance? Why this
reversal of commitment to fostering equality, fighting stereotypes and
preventing suicide? Why the haste to foreclose civic debate & silence
disabled Canadians? #elxn43 #cdnpoli

9/9
For answers, we must ask @JustinTrudeau and @MinJusticeEn. Disabled Canadians are waiting. And History is watching.
#elxn43 #cdnpoli #MAiD