For Immediate Release
June 18, 2026
(Toronto) — Disability Without Poverty welcomes the recommendation by the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (AMAD) that the federal government indefinitely exclude people whose sole underlying condition is a mental illness from eligibility for Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). The committee tabled its report in the House of Commons this week, ahead of a planned expansion of MAID eligibility set to take effect on March 17, 2027 unless Parliament intervenes.
“No one should be offered death because we have failed to offer them a life worth living,” said Rabia Khedr, National Director of Disability Without Poverty. “This recommendation gives Parliament the chance to do the harder, more important work: making sure that people living with mental illness and disability have access to housing, income, mental health care, and community before anyone talks to them about ending their lives.”
The committee, made up of members of the Senate and the House of Commons, concluded that there remains a “divergence of perspectives” on whether Canada is ready to extend MAID to people whose sole condition is a mental illness. A majority of members recommended against the expansion, echoing the same concerns that led Parliament to delay the measure in 2024.
Disability Without Poverty has long warned that, in a country where too many disabled people live below the poverty line and wait months or years for adequate care, “choice” is not truly free when the supports that make life livable are out of reach. The organization has repeatedly heard from people who considered MAID not because they wanted to die, but because they could not afford to live with dignity.
“The question was never whether suffering is real — it is profoundly real,” as noted by Dr. Michelle Hewitt, Board Chair of Disability Without Poverty. “The question is whether the government is doing everything it can to relieve that suffering before it offers death as a solution. Right now, the answer is no and this recommendation recognizes that.”
Disability Without Poverty acknowledges that this is a difficult and deeply personal issue on which Canadians, clinicians, and people with lived experience hold sincere and differing views, including strong objections from some who see access to MAID as a matter of equality and autonomy. The organization urges that any path forward centre the voices of disabled people and those living with mental illness.
Disability Without Poverty is calling on the federal government to:
- Adopt the committee’s recommendation and remove the March 17, 2027 expansion deadline for mental illness as a sole underlying condition.
- Invest urgently in adequate income supports, affording housing and accessible health care for people so that a good life is a realistic option for everyone.
- Ensure that people with lived experience of disability, poverty, and mental illness are at the centre of all future MAID policy decisions.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser is leading the government’s response to the report and is expected to respond by the July 11 deadline for feedback. Disability Without Poverty calls on the Minister to act on the committee’s recommendation and to pair it with concrete investments in the supports that make life livable.
About Disability Without Poverty
Disability Without Poverty is a disability-led movement working to end disability poverty in Canada. Led by people with disabilities and supported by their families, friends, allies, and partner organizations, DWP advocates for the income, services, and supports that allow disabled people to live full and dignified lives.