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http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2010/05/26/quebec-euthanasia-hearings.html

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Quebec committee to decide life and death questions [The Globe and Mail]
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec-committee-to-decide-life-and-death-questions/article1580932/
In a consultation document entitled "Dying in Dignity," released Tuesday, questions examined last winter with experts from across Canada and abroad outlined the scope of the debate the committee will address. Mr. Kelley said he was well aware of the passion the issues arouse, pointing as an example to the controversial case of Sue Rodriguez in British Columbia.

In 1993, Ms. Rodriguez, who was diagnosed with a degenerative and incurable disease, fought for the right to assisted suicide and lost her legal battle before the Supreme Court of Canada. She later ended her life with the assistance of an anonymous doctor. Her fight touched off a heated debate that, for many people, called into question some of their most profound convictions and values.

Public opinion polls in Quebec indicated that the vast majority - 83 per cent according to Mr. Kelley, 77 per cent according to an Angus Reid poll in February, 2010 - believe that people struggling with terminal illness should be entitled to decide the timing of their death. The province's family doctors and specialists urged the government to tackle the issue. Mr. Kelley insisted the committee will conduct an open debate and has no preconceived notion of what will be decided. "It's not just a question of public opinion polls. These are very deep principles and very deep values for Quebec society. So we'll be listening for those as well," Mr. Kelley said.

Under the Criminal Code, assisted suicide and euthanasia are illegal in Canada. However, one possible solution that the committee will consider was the decision taken in B.C. after Ms. Rodriguez's death. Since the provinces have the responsibility of enforcing the federal Criminal Code, B.C. decided that only under certain strict conditions would it lay charges in cases of assisted suicide.

Quebec: Euthanasia hearings to hit the road [The Montreal Gazette]
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Euthanasia+hearings+road/3071270/story.html
After hearing medical, legal and other experts on the issue of dying with dignity, a National Assembly committee plans to tour the province to hear the views of ordinary Quebecers. Participants will be asked their views on euthanasia, consenting to a lethal dose of medicine, and assisted suicide, helping end the life of someone who wants to die.

Quebec: Select Committee on Dying with Dignity [National Assembly of Quebec]
http://www.assnat.qc.ca/en/travaux-parlementaires/commissions/CSMD/consultations/consultation-97-20100525.html

National Assembly information page on the Select Committee, with a copy of the interim report (French only.)

Quebec: Terms of reference for the Committee on the right to die with dignity [EuthaNEWSia, Dec. 14, 2009]
http://www.euthanewsia.ca/archive/2009/12/enid200912149822.4.html

The National Assembly of Quebec has published the text of the December 3rd motion establishing a two-phase inquiry into the right to die with dignity. In February, the standing Committee on Health and Social Services will commence a consultation with experts on end-of-life conditions and care; and on the law and eventual supervisory conditions surrounding the right to euthanasia.

Tories & true believers: The rise of the religious right in Canada [The Montreal Gazette]
http://www.montrealgazette.com/Tories+true+believers+rise+religious+right+Canada/3057923/story.html
Marci McDonald says she's not out to scare people even though the title of her new book, The Armageddon Factor, conjures up the end of the world as we know it.

Its subtitle, and subject, is The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada and McDonald says her purpose is to alert Canadians to how the domestic political world they long knew and largely took for granted is being altered by the rise of evangelical and fundamentalist religious groups and their impassioned preachers in this first decade of the 21st century. It details the organizational clout, entree to government and influence on policy they have attained under Stephen Harper's Conservative administration, many of whose leading lights, starting with the prime minister, are of the right of the Christian religious persuasion.

Canada: Tilting at windmills [The Edmonton Journal]
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Tilting+windmills/3064862/story.html
An extract from P.J. Cotterill's letter: For the second time in as many weeks, The Journal has given ample space to the didactics of Margaret Somerville. Somerville is an ethicist at McGill University, but hardly an unbiased one.

She is pro-life (that is, anti-human abortion) and anti-medically assisted euthanasia, a value set that is no doubt based on a deeply ingrained religious faith. She expresses the fear that in Canada the proponents of secularism are pushing for "freedom from religion," that is, for excluding religion from informing public morality and social policy.

Frankly, I think she's tilting at windmills.

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