#Canada #ON – Canada will indefinitely block assisted suicide for people whose only condition is a mental illness, and will at the same time move to allow advance requests in cases of progressive illness, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said Wednesday.
The Liberal government said it would introduce legislation this fall that would stop a scheduled expansion of euthanasia (known locally as “medical assistance in dying” as a politically correct expression to avoid stigma, or also “MAID”). Under the law then in force, the temporary exclusion of mental illness as a sole qualifying condition was set to expire on March 17, 2027. Without a new statute, people whose only underlying condition was a mental illness would have become eligible to be assessed for an assisted death on that date.
“Canada has made a decision not to move forward with the expansion that is scheduled in the Criminal Code of medical assistance in dying in circumstances where mental illness is the sole basis,” Fraser told reporters. “While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time.”
He cited two main reasons: “very real concerns” about communities with inadequate access to mental health services, and the lack of agreement over when a mental illness could be judged incurable. The position matched a June recommendation from a special joint committee of the House of Commons and the Senate, which had urged the government to “indefinitely exclude” people whose sole underlying medical condition was a mental illness.
Fraser said the same bill would open the door to advance requests. People who still had decision-making capacity, but who had been diagnosed with an illness expected to take that capacity away — such as some forms of dementia — would be able to consent in advance to an assisted suicide. Details would be worked out in parliamentary committee, he said, but the illness would have to be incurable and cause intolerable suffering.
Provinces would decide whether to offer that option. Advanced requests were already permitted in Quebec for people with serious and incurable illnesses. Alberta had taken the opposite approach: legislation passed in March 2026 said the province would not allow advance consent for euthanasia. The federal bill was also expected to amend the Criminal Code so physicians who followed the criteria would not be prosecuted.
Fraser said he did not expect further restrictions on Canada’s existing euthanasia framework, which was among the broadest in the world. People who qualified on the basis of a physical condition could still be assessed even if they also had a mental illness. The contested change was eligibility based on mental illness alone.
The announcement landed the same day the House was set to vote on a Conservative private member’s bill, C-218, from MP Tamara Jansen. That bill would have stated that a mental disorder was not a grievous and irremediable condition for which a person could receive MAID. Fraser said the government would not support it. He argued that the phrase “mental disorders” could be read to cover neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s and that the bill did not address advance consent. Under current law and practice, those with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s could qualify for assisted suicide.
Jansen accused the minister of political timing, saying the government was trying to sink her bill with a “phantom bill” that had not yet been drafted. She said Conservatives were open to changing the wording and urged Liberal members to vote for C-218 anyway.
Canada first legalized euthanasia in 2016 after a Supreme Court ruling in 2025, but limited assisted suicide to adults whose natural death was “reasonably foreseeable.” A Quebec court later struck down that limit. Bill C-7, passed in 2021, removed it and created a broader pathway, while temporarily barring euthanasia where mental illness was the only condition. That sunset was delayed from March 2023 to 2024, then again to March 2027.
Fraser acknowledged the issue could still reach the Supreme Court. Groups that supported expansion, including Dying with Dignity, had argued that excluding mental illness alone violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and had been involved in litigation.
Under Canadian constitutional law, which paved the way for euthanasia’s legalization in Carter v. Canada, there exists a clause that permits governments to override Supreme Court rulings for up to five years at a time. If challenged, the “Notwithstanding Clause” would allow the government to enforce its decision to avoid euthanasia legalization for those with mental illness, but the clause would need to be renewed every five years. As of this report, this clause has not been effectively been used in this sort of practice and would be an extreme measure to protect life if the Supreme Court somehow favored legalization for those with mental illness.
The bill had no introduction date as of yet. Fraser said it was being drafted and that the government intended to move that fall, with seven sitting weeks left before the winter break.
Cover Image: Justice Minister Sean Fraser speaking to the press on the most recent development on euthanasia in Canada, October 7th, 2026.
