[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Valmy]

Medically assisted suicide is one of those things that always sounds like a merciful thing in theory but also seems to create all these rather terrifying gray areas.

But we have some actual examples of these laws in practice right? Didn't the Swiss introduce a law like that awhile ago? How has that gone?

[Grey Fox]

Let's work on fixing poverty then, if that's the actual issue.

But it's not.

[Barrister]

Medically assisted suicide is one of those things that always sounds like a merciful thing in theory but also seems to create all these rather terrifying gray areas.

But we have some actual examples of these laws in practice right? Didn't the Swiss introduce a law like that awhile ago? How has that gone?

Switzerland has really creep suicide laws - basically anything goes as long as it is the patient who commits the final act.  So a medical practitioner can cheerfully give someone a lethal dose of some drug as long as the patient consumes it by themselves.  No real eligibility requirements.

I can't find any statistics for how many Swiss (or foreigners in Switzerland) take up this option.

[Barrister]

Let's work on fixing poverty then, if that's the actual issue.

But it's not.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9176485/poverty-canadians-disabilities-medically-assisted-death/

[Grey Fox]

Let's work on fixing poverty then, if that's the actual issue.

But it's not.

https://globalnews.ca/news/9176485/poverty-canadians-disabilities-medically-assisted-death/

Why is it an issue that poor people are choosing death?


btw, your comments on the new law in Alberta are very interesting. I have nothing to add to the conversation really but I am glad someone else is willing to  take on the Federal government once in a while.

[Jacob]

Or I guess guns.  I guess the province could order police forces not to charge anyone for violating the most recent gun bans, and order prosecutors not to prosecute such charges if they are laid.  As mentioned in my post above there is at least some precedent for this.  But on the police side the province can't order the RCMP to do anything.

Suddenly to push to replace the RCMP with an Alberta only force makes a little more sense.

[PRC]

So it's an odd bill.  Let's take the first part - modifying existing laws.  It's kind-of undemocratic, but remember any majority government can pass whatever laws it feels like anyways.  With the restrictions the bill puts on such modifications of existing laws (such modifications expire in 2 years unless extended, and you can only extend once) this provision might be a bad idea, but it's not as bad as critics are saying (that it's dictatorial, fascistic, that kind of thing).

Most of the takes I'm seeing say it's exactly that (dictatorial).  It grants power to the Executive to amend statues outside of the elected assembly and behind closed doors.  It is being referred to as a "Henry VIII" clause, allowing changes to legislation to be made outside of the ordinary law making / legislative process.  I don't know if dictatorial is the right word, but it certainly seems anti-democratic, particularly when coming from a Premier voted into office by less than 1% of Albertans.

[PRC]

Or I guess guns.  I guess the province could order police forces not to charge anyone for violating the most recent gun bans, and order prosecutors not to prosecute such charges if they are laid.  As mentioned in my post above there is at least some precedent for this.  But on the police side the province can't order the RCMP to do anything.

Suddenly to push to replace the RCMP with an Alberta only force makes a little more sense.

This is a cynical take, but I actually wondered if the Alberta police force had more to do with procurement.  All of those new vehicles need to be bought, painted & decaled, new uniforms, new kit, new guns, new everything.  Someone is going to benefit from those procurement contracts and I imagine it will be someone who has donated generously to Smith's UCP campaign. 

[Barrister]

So it's an odd bill.  Let's take the first part - modifying existing laws.  It's kind-of undemocratic, but remember any majority government can pass whatever laws it feels like anyways.  With the restrictions the bill puts on such modifications of existing laws (such modifications expire in 2 years unless extended, and you can only extend once) this provision might be a bad idea, but it's not as bad as critics are saying (that it's dictatorial, fascistic, that kind of thing).

Most of the takes I'm seeing say it's exactly that (dictatorial).  It grants power to the Executive to amend statues outside of the elected assembly and behind closed doors.  It is being referred to as a "Henry VIII" clause, allowing changes to legislation to be made outside of the ordinary law making / legislative process.  I don't know if dictatorial is the right word, but it certainly seems anti-democratic, particularly when coming from a Premier voted into office by less than 1% of Albertans.

Yeah, and I think most of the takes I'm seeing are overblown.

I'm not saying this provision will or will not be constitutional.  At the very least it's close to the line.  It's clear the government can not pass a bill saying "we can amend any law at any time for any reason", but caselaw has developed to allow such amendments by order in council in a very limited situation, such as an emergency or war.

I'm more concerned about the being able to order all kinds of government agencies to break a federal law, though I still don't quite know how that would work in practice.

[Zoupa]

https://globalnews.ca/news/9322058/polytechnique-shooting-survivor-objects-to-firearm-coalitions-disrespectful-sales-promotion/

Wtf is wrong with people.

[Josephus]

Speaking of Lepine, and as a digression, I found it interesting, in a strange way, that two fiction books I read recently, both new, referenced the Lepine shootings in passing.

One was the latest book by one of my favourite contemporary authors, John Irving. In The Last Chairlift, one of his feminist characters gets outraged when she hears about the Lepine shootings.

In J.k> Rowling's newest book, under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, The Ink Black Heart, a misogynist on social media uses the handle "Lepine's Disciple".

Anyway....back to Alberta, suicide and guns and stuff.

[Jacob]

You mean the Polytechnique shootings?

No need to memorialize terrorists by name IMO.

[Grey Fox]

I think the group of surviving victims of the terrorist act have so strongly cemented their opposition to gun ownership around that act that people, especially 30 years after it, forget that they are first victims of gun violence.

Quite the catch-22.

[Sheilbh]

Another medically assisted dying issue:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/paralympian-trying-to-get-wheelchair-ramp-says-veterans-affairs-employee-offered-her-assisted-dying-1.6179325

I think the problem is people seem to be offering it as an alternative to decent social provision. I think it's just very uncomfortable (and sends a horrendous message) if disabled people or people in poverty ask the state for help and are asked if they've considered death as an alternative.

[Syt]

In the 90s, the president of the doctors' chamber in Bremen talked in the context of rising social expenses for the sick and elderly of promoting "socially responsible early passing" (sozialverträgliches Frühableben), though it was not 100% clear if he used it as an exaggeration to criticize planned reforms, or if he was endorsing it. The expression was voted Un-word of the Year 1998.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un-word_of_the_year