{"id":32194,"date":"2026-05-05T02:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/32194\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T02:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T02:46:08","slug":"toronto-woman-with-bipolar-disorder-asks-ontario-court-to-grant-her-emergency-maid-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/32194\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto woman with bipolar disorder asks Ontario court to grant her emergency MAID access"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Plaintiff Claire Brosseau, centre, counsel Michael Fenrick, left, and Dying With Dignity Canada CEO Helen Long speak to media outside the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Toronto on Monday.Sammy Kogan\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A Toronto woman with bipolar disorder is asking an Ontario court to grant her emergency access to medical assistance in dying, arguing that she should not have to wait any longer for the federal government to legalize assisted death for people whose only medical condition is mental illness.<\/p>\n

The 49-year-old woman, Claire Brosseau, is already suing the federal government over its decision to bar MAID in cases of mental illness. She made a new application on Monday in Ontario Superior Court asking for an order that would allow her to immediately end her life with medical help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in treatment for 35 years across multiple cities and systems; this is not a phase,\u201d Ms. Brosseau told The Globe and Mail recently. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my life and, at some point, it stops being trying treatment, and it starts being long-term survival. We don\u2019t ask cancer patients to wait for a hypothetical cure before treating their suffering. The standard only gets applied to mental illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Brosseau\u2019s effort to seek legal permission to end her life with a physician\u2019s help is taking place at a time when MAID for patients living with mental illness is being closely examined by parliamentarians on a special joint committee. <\/p>\n

Psychiatry chairs at medical schools oppose expanding MAID for mental illness<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada has faced pressure, including from religious groups and the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to scale back its existing MAID regime, which opponents argue is too permissive.<\/p>\n

The special joint committee is set to wrap up its final hearings on Tuesday before parliamentarians will meet to discuss witness testimony with an eye to releasing recommendations to the federal government before an Oct. 2 deadline.<\/p>\n

MAID was enacted in June, 2016, allowing Canadian patients whose deaths were deemed \u201creasonably foreseeable\u201d to seek the help of medical professionals to end their lives.<\/p>\n

In 2021, the law was updated after a Quebec court decision to allow patients with incurable conditions such as multiple sclerosis to seek to end their lives. <\/p>\n

At the same time, it was determined that patients whose sole underlying medical condition is mental illness would not be immediately eligible for MAID. Instead, an initial two-year temporary exclusion was put in place to allow for more time to study how MAID could be delivered to such patients.<\/p>\n

Ontario nurses to receive new MAID guidance before patients with mental illness can access it<\/a><\/p>\n

On March 17, 2027, Canada is set to begin permitting MAID for patients with mental illness. The federal government could delay this timeline, as it has already done twice, but it would need to introduce a bill to do so.<\/p>\n

Ms. Brosseau, an actress and comedian, was diagnosed 3\u00bd decades ago with Bipolar 1, a type of bipolar disorder. The mental-health condition she lives with is characterized by manic and depressive episodes and severely affects her mood and energy levels. <\/p>\n

She said because of her illness, she is unable to function outside of her apartment. If she leaves her home, she finds herself breaking down and has to remove herself right away. She said she is also unable to drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am completely functionally terminal and it\u2019s a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Prime Minister Mark Carney has faced mounting pressure to bar MAID for patients with mental illness, including from prominent Catholic leaders. <\/p>\n

Catholic leaders urge Carney government to bar MAID access for patients with mental illness<\/a><\/p>\n

Recently, the Archbishop of Toronto wrote directly to Mr. Carney and MPs to outline his concerns, such as the need to instead prioritize funding for palliative care as well as mental-health support and resources for marginalized people, including seniors and individuals living with disabilities.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the joint committee is set to hear testimony from Dutch psychiatrists, Jim van Os, Wilbert van Rooij and Sisco van Veen, who have raised concerns about MAID being made available to patients with mental illness. <\/p>\n

Helen Long, the executive director of Dying with Dignity Canada, is also expected to address the committee. Ms. Long said in a recent interview that there are \u201cvery real harms in not moving forward\u201d with allowing MAID for patients with the sole underlying medical condition of mental illness. She noted this includes patients who have instead opted to end their lives through suicide.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Dying with Dignity called Ms. Brosseau\u2019s action in court an \u201cextraordinary step.\u201d The advocacy group said that if her motion is granted by the court, she will be permitted to access MAID because she has been found to be eligible by two clinicians.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the organization joined Ms. Brosseau in filing its lawsuit against Ottawa. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the federal Justice Department, Ian McLeod, said late last week that federal Attorney-General Sean Fraser is expected to outline the government\u2019s position in a written document, known as a factum.<\/p>\n

Ms. Brosseau said Monday in a news release that the \u201cgovernment should do the right thing and lift the exclusion that denies me the relief to my suffering that I am desperate for.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Plaintiff Claire Brosseau, centre, counsel Michael Fenrick, left, and Dying With Dignity Canada…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[361,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-32194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-pleasemod","9":"tag-toronto"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}