The Jas Johal Show: Oct. 7, 2026

[upbeat music] Hey, thanks for listening to The Jas Johal Show podcast. Today on the pod, Canada was months away from allowing assisted death for mental illness alone. Well, today Ottawa scrapped it. The Justice Ministry even admits he might lose in court, so why do it anyway? Plus, the Premier says BC can still go after Ottawa's food processing money. The expert who pushed hardest for the fix says that's simply not true. The clock is ticking, so who's right? Plus, the NDP calls it a secret deal with trial lawyers. The BC Conservatives say it's an open letter. And back in 2017, the NDP wrote one just like it, so who's really playing politics with your ICBC rates? That's all next on The Jas Johal Show podcast. [whooshing] Let's get to it and talk about MAID at the beginning of this show. For five years, Canada has been walking towards a line it couldn't quite bring itself to cross. Now, in 2021, Parliament promised that people suffering solely from a mental illness would eventually qualify for medical assistance in dying, or MAID. That date slid from 2023 to 2024 to March of 2027. Today, Justice Minister Sean Fraser ended the suspense. The expansion is off indefinitely. He says there's no medical consensus on when a mental illness is truly incurable, and too many communities lack decent mental health care. He also admitted the government might lose in court. Take a listen.

While there is not a perfect consensus on this issue, uh, we believe this is the correct approach at this particular time. Uh, some of the reasons that we've relied upon when we dug into not only the report, but the reasons that, uh, justified their final recommendation, uh, included, uh, very real concerns about people who live in communities with inadequate access, uh, to mental health services. It included, uh, testimony that we heard around a lack of consensus when mental illness is irremediable, and a series of other, uh, points that were articulated in the committee's report and shared with our office.

That was, uh, Sean Fraser, our justice minister, speaking earlier today. Now, the same announcement opens a door at the other end. Ottawa will decriminalize advance requests. So someone diagnosed with dementia could consent before losing the ability to decide. Well, our next guest is leading the legal fight against the exclusion. Daphne Gilbert is a professor of law at the University of Ottawa and chair of the board of Dying With Dignity Canada. Uh, Professor Gilbert, thank you so much for your time today.

It's good to be here.

Now, you've been fighting this for years. When you heard the word indefinitely this morning, what went through your mind?

Absolute, uh, disappointment and devastation for the plaintiff in the lawsuit that I've been supporting, Claire Bourassa. Uh, we have a constitutional challenge to the exclusion of mental illness as a sole underlying condition for MAID, and, and she's been fighting this for so long. And, uh, I just, I just felt really devastated for her and, and all the people like her who, who are just, you know, facing the most extreme sort of discrimination that you can face, right? Being told that your disability is not as serious and not as