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Be strong. Be safe. Be heard.  Canadians with disabilities are calling upon lawmakers to limit medically assisted death to persons at the end of life, who are free from inducement and fully informed of all medical and social interventions that could ease their suffering.

In this edition of the Update, I am sharing the highlights of key meetings and presentations made over the past few weeks by the CCD team.

Presented to:

Standing Committee on Access to Justice and Human Rights

For its study on Access to the Justice System

42nd Parliament, 1st Session

April 19, 2016

Appearance by:

John Rae
Anne Levesque

Written by

Joëlle Pastora Sala
Anne Levesque

On Behalf of the

by John Rae

This blog originally appeared on the Broadbent Institute’s website.

The Liberal government campaigned on electoral reform, promising “that 2015 will be the last federal election conducted under the first-past-the-post voting system” and that they “will make every vote count.”

April 15, 2016 │ For Immediate Release

With Bill C-14, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (medical assistance in dying), the Government of Canada pushed back from the recommendations in "Medical Assistance in Dying: A Patient-Centered Approach," the report of the Special Joint Committee on Physician-Assisted Dying, which went beyond the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Carter case, but the Government did not push back far enough. 

We're celebrating our 40th Anniversary!

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD) was founded in 1976 as an organization of people with disabilities working for people with disabilities.  CCD was first known as the Coalition of Provincial Organizations of the Handicapped (COPOH), but, in 1994, when its membership structure changed to include national organizations of people with disabilities, a new name was adopted - the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. 

Medical Experts and National Organizations Endorse Special Safeguards to Protect Vulnerable Canadians in Right-to-Die Legislation

On March 15, 2016, many of us read a CBC report that a Manitoba court had given permission for a Manitoban to be provided medical aid in dying, also referred to as assisted suicide, and then the next day the media covered an Ontario case.  Earlier this month, courts in Alberta and Ontario granted constitutional exemptions.  In the province of Quebec, people have been receiving medical aid in dying since December 2015.  You may be wonde

Dear Colleague:

Parliament is currently considering how to implement assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada.  Members are working from a set of recommendations that go far beyond what was considered in the Carter decision.  The recommendations would:

March 23, 2016

For Immediate Release

March 11 is a notable day in Canadian history, because on March 11, 2010, Canada became the 82nd country to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which reaffirms that persons with disabilities enjoy the protection of all human rights.  On this day in 2010 disability community members, Steven Estey, CCD International Committee Chairperson, Traci Walters, IL Canada, and Bendina Miller, Canadian Association for Community Living, and then Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon, met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon at the UN in New York, to