Deadline for Bill C-14 could pass without law

June 6 is not ‘drop-dead date,’ says Cowan

Even as the House of Commons takes unusual measures to expedite physicianassisted dying legislation, some in the red chamber are nonplussed about missing the deadline.

The leader of the Senate’s Liberal caucus, James Cowan, said it’s not the end of the world if Bill C-14 doesn’t become law by June 6, the date that a Supreme Court ruling takes effect.

“June 6, in my view, is not a drop-dead date. We have to get it right,” he said.

Senate Liberals were declared independent in January 2014. They don’t sit in a caucus with Liberal MPs, but they do meet as a separate caucus.

Cowan’s comments come as a House committee finishes a clause-by-clause review of the proposed law, following late-night debates last week that helped speed up the process.

The House is likely to vote on the third reading of the bill next week, after which it will be sent to the Senate for another series of votes.

A Supreme Court ruling Feb. 6, 2015 struck down the federal ban on physicianassisted dying and detailed situations where patients should have the legal right to request it.

After giving the government a year to update Canadian laws, the Court’s nine members ruled five-to-four in January that federal lawmakers could have four more months.

Cowan was part of a joint House of Commons and Senate committee that studied the issue before the government introduced Bill C-14.

He said he thinks it’s a “bad bill” that waters down the Supreme Court decision, and he won’t vote for it until significant amendments are made.

It will be no small feat for senators to agree on the bill. Some on the Liberal side, such as Cowan, see the bill as too restrictive. Others on the Conservative side think the bill is too permissive.

“A number of us are not happy with this,” Cowan said.

June 6 is when the Supreme Court ruling will officially take effect. If there are no federal guidelines governing how provinces should handle physician-assisted dying, that just means that provinces will have to deal with their individual jurisdictions as they see fit.

A NUMBER OF US ARE NOT HAPPY WITH THIS.