Ontario Solicitor-General Michael Kerzner speaks at a press conference in Toronto in 2023.Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press
Ontario’s Solicitor-General says he’s confident a new committee to review complex cases of medically assisted deaths will include a diversity of views and will conduct its work transparently, contrary to the concerns of some who have seen the internal posting for the new body.
The Globe reported earlier this week that the Chief Coroner for Ontario is overhauling the original 16-member MAiD Death Review Committee formed two years ago. The committee was the first of its kind to bring together experts from different fields to scrutinize and draw lessons from complex cases where MAID occurred.
Ontario overhauls MAID oversight committee, critics say it’s to remove dissenters
Since then, each new report issued by the committee has sparked headlines, informing the broader public discussion about MAID in Canada.
Two former members say the proposed new version of the committee is designed to be less rigorous and to provide less oversight.
But Solicitor-General Michael Kerzner told reporters Wednesday that’s not what he’s expecting in the new committee formed by Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer.
“I spoke to Dr. Huyer, and I speak to Dr. Huyer on a regular basis,” Mr. Kerzner said.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence that he’ll fill the committee with people who have a broad spectrum of views.”
The committee’s two-year term is up. Dr. Huyer’s office issued a call for new members April 2 in a document obtained by The Globe and Mail. The posting differs in several ways from the version issued in late 2023.
According to the new posting, the committee will have only six to eight members instead of 16. Members will meet five times a year, as opposed to an initial commitment to meet 10 times. The new meetings will last two to three hours, compared with the earlier commitment to meet for four to five. The new committee will review 20 deaths a year; the initial posting called for a review of 25 complex cases, although the coroner’s office said earlier this week only 14 were examined.
Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer has been in his role since 2014.Steve Russell/The Canadian Press
The internal posting notes that new members will be those “interested in supporting MAiD practice.” Language emphasizing “independent expert review” has been removed, replaced with a focus on providing “guidance to practitioners” and efforts to “support emerging MAiD practice.”
“The MDRC is evolving in response to the changing landscape of MAiD in Ontario and will continue to be a means of providing independent expert review of MAiD deaths to assist in evaluating public safety concerns and identify opportunities for continued broad system improvements,” Dr. Huyer said in the April 2 document.
Mr. Kerzner praised Dr. Huyer as “an exceptional individual.”
“He’s restructuring the committee to make sure that it’s smaller, it’s more nimble and it represents a cross-section of views.”
The change in the committee follows several stories that prompted criticism that Canada’s MAID practices have gone too far. Some of the committee’s annual reports have highlighted cases that caused public alarm.
Mr. Kerzner said he expected the new committee to “keep the transparency 100 per cent as high as possible.”
The coroner’s office said Dr. Huyer would not be available Wednesday for comment.
Opinion: In the MAID debates, the patient’s voice must take precedence
MAID has been available in Canada since a Supreme Court decision in 2015 permitted assistance in dying to “competent adults who are suffering intolerably as a result of a grievous and irremediable medical condition.”
In 2021, the law was expanded to those enduring intolerable suffering but not approaching their natural deaths. Canada has twice delayed further expanding eligibility for the procedure to those with mental illness alone.
Former committee member Trudo Lemmens, who has expressed concerns with MAID and Canada’s expansion of eligibility, has told The Globe he was informed that his services are not required on the new committee.
Dr. Lemmens, who teaches law at the University of Toronto, wrote a sharply worded letter to Dr. Huyer on Monday objecting to the changes. The letter was later provided to The Globe.
“The [coroner’s] office has also justified the overhaul by citing the difficulty of managing diverse viewpoints and lack of consensus within the MDRC,” Dr. Lemmens wrote.
“If diversity of perspectives is itself treated as a liability, the inevitable result will be an artificial consensus in an area where profound ethical disagreement persists.”
Ramona Coelho, a family physician from London, Ont., who served on the original committee until it was dissolved this month, said the committee changes risk the credibility and independence of the review process.
“When the MDRC is reconstituted to include only MAID clinicians or those supportive of the practice, it will become a closed loop,” she said.
“Oversight bodies are meant to critically evaluate systems, not align with the communities they oversee.”