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Dying with Dignity
Wanda Morris CEO of Dying with Dignity
On January 15 Dying with Dignity — a small Toronto-based organization that advocates for legalized assisted suicide — received word that it was losing its charity status; an audit by the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) determined Dying with Dignity has been incorrectly granted the ability to issue tax receipts in 1982 resulting in annulment within 30 days.
Less than a month later little more than a week before the group lost its charity status the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the ban on euthanasia in a unanimous decision which was the exact outcome the charity had been pushing for over the course of three decades. Wanda Morris CEO of Dying with Dignity says she hasn’t been able to stop grinning since the verdict was announced on February 6.
“We’re super happy” she says. “Unanimous produced so very quickly signed by the justices to give it extra weight. It was just so clear.”
The declaration invalidates Criminal Code Section 241(b) which prohibits anyone who “aids or abets a person to commit suicide” at the price of a 14-year maximum sentence in the clinker. Now federal and provincial governments have a year to craft new legislation an allowance that — as seen most recently with the revamped anti-sex work bill introduced on the heels of a similarly monumental Supreme Court decision — could go any direction; the Conservative Party of Canada’s most recent policy document stated the party “will not support any legislation to legalize euthanasia or assisted suicide.”
“There’s no guarantee that a wise and just court decision will lead to wise and just legislation” says Morris. “Closing our doors is the last thing we’re going to be doing: now more than ever we need to work with Canadians to make sure that the law honours the spirit of the court’s judgment.”
