Thank you again, committee, for having me here.

My name is Neil Belanger. I'm a member of the Lax Seel Clan in the House of Nikateen of the Gitxsan Nation. I'm also the chief executive officer of Indigenous Disability Canada, IDC. IDC is a national indigenous cross-disability organization that has provided disability-related supports and services across Canada for the past 35 years.

Before I begin, I would like to recognize and thank the Algonquin Anishinabe people, whose territory we are meeting on today.

IDC was the lead organization working with over 55 national disability groups on Canada's second and third reviews of the CRPD. From this review, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recommended to Canada, under article 10, which is the right to life, to repeal track 2 MAID, including the provision to expand MAID to those whose “sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness”. To date, despite one year passing, Canada has failed to respond.

On a daily basis, IDC works with individuals and families from across Canada with disabilities, including those with mental illness. Our work is to assist in obtaining necessary disability and health-related supports and services. This is so individuals and families can have a good life, where their disability and health-related needs are met.

IDC works with thousands of individuals annually, including those who have been approved for track 2 MAID, those who have applied for it and those who are considering requesting it.

Individuals we have worked with include those from the deaf community who were approved for track 2 MAID. They requested MAID due only to the denial of requested technology and disability accommodations while in the correctional system. This denial resulted in their inability to participate in group sessions and activities or to communicate with their legal representatives, causing increased mental stress and increased isolation, which in turn eroded their will to continue.

Other individuals IDC has worked with and is currently working with have conveyed that they are intending to apply for MAID due to inadequate housing, discrimination and racism experienced in health care, and the general lack or inadequacy of disability services and supports on most levels, all of which have greatly impacted their mental health and their desire to go on.

IDC has been in contact with persons approved for track 2 MAID who, despite being approved for state-assisted death, haven't been assisted in obtaining their disability tax credit, DTC. The DTC is a gateway benefit for other benefits, including the registered disability savings plan, Canada disability benefit, Canada workers benefit disability supplement and the Canadian dental care plan, etc. These are all benefits that could be significant in alleviating a person's suffering.

It seems unimaginable that state-assisted euthanasia could be facilitated and approved while, at the same time, the individual received no assistance in accessing their DTC before, during or after their MAID assessment.

Track 2 MAID, including MAID where the sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness, has been framed by pro-euthanasia and assisted suicide groups as a so-called “equality right”. This equality right, however, is reserved solely for those who are considered to be unequal. No other group is afforded access to this state-provided euthanasia, regardless of their suffering. No, this equality right is only for those who are commonly portrayed as less than, defective and wanting—people no one would ever want to be.

Overwhelmingly, past and present committee members have heard from expert witnesses—persons with disabilities, indigenous leaders, clinicians and disability organizations—all of whom said that the reason many persons with disabilities and mental illness request or even consider track 2 MAID is the lack or inadequacy of available services and supports.

These gaps in services leave persons with disabilities and with mental illness in isolation, frustration and desperation. Life for many becomes too hard. Again, it's not because of their disability or mental illness but because of the systems they are forced to endure and the suffering that those systems inflict.

We could fix those systems and ensure that persons with disabilities and mental illness have the necessary supports to lead a good life, but in Canada, we are opting to present them with state-assisted euthanasia as an acceptable and normalized alternative.

Persons with disabilities and mental illness taking or contemplating MAID due to the lack or withholding of necessary and adequate supports and services is not a voluntary action by them, nor is it done freely, as some might suggest. It is, in fact, a response to tactical omissions within our disability, health and social systems. It is a result of external pressures, and it is the definition of coercion.

During the previous and current session of the AMAD committee, you've heard from expert clinicians who have overwhelmingly testified that mental illness can never be deemed to be irremediable and that there are no standard medical tests nor specific clinical criteria existing to determine irremediability.

Simply put, if this expansion is allowed, there is no way to predict that the individual euthanized could not have led a good life and a full life once proper supports and treatments were in place. There are no safeguards, policies or procedures that can be put in place to correct this.

Meeting #6