Feds win bid to reargue the facts used in landmark assisted-dying case
VANCOUVER — Severely ill Canadians who don’t qualify for medical help in dying will suffer even longer while they wait to find out whether the federal government has violated their right to a medically assisted death after a court ruling in B.C. on Wednesday, a civil liberties group says.
Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson of the British Columbia Supreme Court said the government should be given a second chance to argue the findings of fact that were used by the country’s top court to overturn a ban on assisted dying in 2015.
The federal government’s legislation, which came into effect last year, needs to be assessed on “relevant, current evidence,” Hinkson wrote. Barring the courts from considering the most up-to-date information would prevent a judge from being able to decide what evidence is important and how much weight it should be given, he added.
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is spearheading a lawsuit launched in June 2016 that challenges the federal law, which it says is more limited than the assisted-dying regime the Supreme Court of Canada envisioned in its landmark ruling, referred to as the Carter decision.