Parliament Committee Got It Right on MAiD for Mental Illness. Now it Must Repeal Track 2
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OTTAWA, ON, June 17, 2026 – Ten years after medical assistance in dying (MAiD) became legal in Canada, Inclusion Canada celebrates and welcomes today's recommendation by the Special Joint Parliamentary Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD) to amend the criminal code to indefinitely exclude persons whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness from eligibility for MAiD. Inclusion Canada urges the federal government to implement the recommendation without delay.
This recommendation reflects years of testimony from disability organizations, mental health advocates, clinicians, researchers, and people with lived experience who have consistently raised concerns about the profound risks associated with the expansion.
Inclusion Canada believes the committee has reached the right conclusion. A total of 12 Members of Parliament and five Senators have been participating in hearings since March to consider evidence on whether Canada’s assisted suicide law should be widened. Inclusion Canada CEO Krista Carr was one of the witnesses who appeared before the Special Joint Parliamentary Committee.
"For years, Canadians have been told that more time, more study, and more safeguards would make MAiD for mental illness workable," said Carr. "Today's recommendation recognizes what many have argued from the beginning: the challenges associated with MAiD for mental illness are not temporary implementation issues. They raise fundamental questions about equality and how we respond to suffering."
The organization notes that the proposed expansion has already been delayed multiple times and has now been examined by successive parliamentary reviews.
"Parliament has now had years to study this issue," said Carr. "The conclusion is clear. Canada must not proceed with MAiD where mental illness is the sole underlying condition. We thank the Parliamentarians for reaching this conclusion and we urge the federal government to accept this recommendation and move to permanently remove these provisions from Canadian law."
The concerns that ultimately led Parliament to reject MAiD for mental illness are not confined to mental illness alone. Questions about the impact of poverty, social isolation, inadequate housing, barriers to health care, lack of community supports, and systemic discrimination remain relevant for Canadians with disabilities currently eligible for MAiD under Track 2.
"MAiD was promised to Canadians as end-of-life care," said Carr. "Track 2 is not end of life care. It is ending the lives of people who are not at the end of life."
Since Track 2 was introduced in 2021, Canada created a separate pathway to assisted death, based on disability, for people whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable. This distinction has raised serious equality and human rights concerns In March 2025, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities called on Canada to repeal Track 2. A coalition of disability organizations, including Inclusion Canada, is already challenging Track 2 in court as a violation of the Charter’s equality guarantee.
"When the reasons people seek an assisted death are loneliness, poverty, and a lack of support, this has nothing to do with a disability," said Carr. "We are offering assisted suicide to people with disabilities in answer to needs this country has failed to meet."
"The same concerns that persuaded Parliament to reject MAiD for mental illness must now lead lawmakers to repeal Track 2," said Carr. "Canadians with disabilities continue to face poverty, barriers to services, inaccessible housing, inadequate supports, and social exclusion. These realities must never become factors that steer people toward an assisted death. If offering assisted death to a person with mental illness is the wrong response to their suffering, why is it acceptable for a person with a physical disability who is not dying? The principle is the same, and the answer must be the same."
Moira Wilson, President of Inclusion Canada, said the recommendation marks an important opportunity to now move to repeal Track 2 provisions of Canada's MAiD law.
"We commend parliamentarians for listening to the concerns raised by people with disabilities, mental health advocates, families, and clinicians," said Wilson. "But Parliament's work cannot stop here. A disability should never be the factor that changes Canada’s response from helping someone live to helping someone die. It is time to repeal Track 2 and its impact on the equality rights of Canadians with disabilities."
Inclusion Canada is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney and Parliament to swiftly implement the committee's recommendation, permanently repeal MAiD for mental illness, and repeal Track 2 provisions that permit assisted death for persons with disabilities whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable.
"Ten years after MAiD became legal in Canada, Parliament must now ask a larger question: why has Canada created a pathway to assisted death for people with disabilities who are not dying?" added Carr. "Today's recommendation is an important step. But if Canada is serious about equality, dignity, and inclusion, the conversation cannot end with mental illness. The same concerns that led Parliament to reject this expansion must now trigger a full repeal of Track 2. The answer to suffering is support. The answer to despair is hope. The answer to unmet needs can never be an assisted death."
Fact
Inclusion Canada and three other national disability organizations along with two individual plaintiffs, launched a charter challenge in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice asserting that Track 2 MAiD violates the rights of persons with disabilities and should be abolished.
About Inclusion Canada
Inclusion Canada is the national federation of 13 provincial/territorial member organizations and over 300 local associations working to advance the full inclusion and human rights of people with intellectual disabilities and their families. Inclusion Canada drives social change by strengthening families, defending rights, and transforming communities into places where everyone belongs.
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