Mij
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Disability rights groups launching Charter challenge against MAID(medically assisted in Dying) law [Canada]
A coalition of disability rights groups says it's launching a Charter challenge against part of Canada's law on medical assistance in dying (MAID). Inclusion Canada’s Krista Carr is part of the coalition launching this challenge. She says Track 2 MAID singles out people with disabilities and suggests their lives aren’t ‘worth protecting or saving or even living.’
By Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press
Posted September 26, 2024 10:31 am.
Heather Walkus, national chair of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, said the government needs to do more to listen to people with disabilities.
“People with disabilities are being not just pushed to the margins, but driven off the cliff unless services and supports are in place,” she said in an interview.
Walkus, who has multiple sclerosis and vision loss, said she recently sought treatment for a hip injury and was asked by a medical professional, unprompted, if she’d considered accessing MAID – something she found “stunning.”
“I don’t suffer because of my disability,” Walkus said. “It’s other people’s perceptions, it’s the physical environment, the attitudinal environment, the policies and the support services, or lack of them – that’s what disables me and puts me in a position of suffering, not my disability.”
LINK
A coalition of disability rights groups says it's launching a Charter challenge against part of Canada's law on medical assistance in dying (MAID). Inclusion Canada’s Krista Carr is part of the coalition launching this challenge. She says Track 2 MAID singles out people with disabilities and suggests their lives aren’t ‘worth protecting or saving or even living.’
By Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press
Posted September 26, 2024 10:31 am.
Heather Walkus, national chair of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities, said the government needs to do more to listen to people with disabilities.
“People with disabilities are being not just pushed to the margins, but driven off the cliff unless services and supports are in place,” she said in an interview.
Walkus, who has multiple sclerosis and vision loss, said she recently sought treatment for a hip injury and was asked by a medical professional, unprompted, if she’d considered accessing MAID – something she found “stunning.”
“I don’t suffer because of my disability,” Walkus said. “It’s other people’s perceptions, it’s the physical environment, the attitudinal environment, the policies and the support services, or lack of them – that’s what disables me and puts me in a position of suffering, not my disability.”
LINK