MPs to get ‘free vote’ on genetic testing bill
After a flurry of intense lobbying from insurance companies, health charities, a handful of provinces and the justice minister herself, the fate of a controversial genetic testing bill is now in the hands of Parliament.
Liberal MP Rob Oliphant has been shepherding the proposed Genetic Non-Discrimination Act, also known as Bill S-201, through the House of Commons, where it is back up for debate and could come to a final vote Wednesday.
“I have been absolutely assured that it is a free vote,” Oliphant said Monday.
Preceding the vote have been months of lobbying both for and against the bill, an effort that picked up steam as the reality began to dawn that a private member’s bill — something that rarely becomes law — actually had enough support to pass.
The legislation would, among other things, make it illegal to require someone to undergo or disclose the results of genetic testing as a condition of signing or continuing an insurance policy or any other good, service, contract or agreement.
Maximum penalties would include a fine of up to $1 million, or five years behind bars.
The Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association warns of higher costs and reduced coverage if passed. The group has registered to lobby the federal government on the bill, specifically “to exclude its applicability to insurance underwriting.”
But Bev Heim-Myers, of the Canadian Coalition for Genetic Fairness, said: “This is about exploding genome technology and science, the ability to target treatments, the ability to prevent disease and treat disease much more effectively, and the insurance industries will survive.”
Some have argued the bill would stray too far into the realm of provincial jurisdiction.
Quebec, B.C. and Manitoba made that case in letters to Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, which her office confirmed last week came in response to her request for analysis.
Three of four constitutional experts who appeared recently at the justice committee, however, argued the bill would not go too far.
Wilson-Raybould sought further input on that constitutional issue last week, but as of Monday there had been no further responses.
THIS IS ABOUT EXPLODING GENOME TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE.