Applying a disability lens doesn’t mean the obliteration of the existing safeguards of the medical assistance in dying legislation. It means addressing the lack of community supports and palliative care resources for disabled people and other vulnerable Canadians.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government declined to appeal the Quebec Supreme Court ruling on the medical assistance in dying legislation, which struck down the prerequisite for a 'natural, reasonably foreseeable death.' The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
The last-minute Liberal election commitment to apply a disability lens to all federal government decisions was both fought for and welcomed widely by the disability community across the country.
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'The government has heard Canadians’ concerns that the world is increasingly uncertain, and that the economy is changing,' the Throne Speech read. 'And in this context, regional needs and differences really matter.'
Queen Elizabeth, on her first royal visit to Canada in 1957, delivered John Diefenbaker's first Throne Speech. In 1977, she delivered Pierre Trudeau's Throne Speech as well in Canada.
In a minority Parliament, co-operation between parties is now an 'imperative, as opposed to something that we would try to do,' says Chief Government Whip Mark Holland.
Incumbent House Speaker Geoff Regan says he expects MPs will be largely influenced by their peers' assessments of the candidates in casting their ballots for the new Speaker.
But a Conservative source is decrying public criticism of Andrew Scheer's leadership, saying it will only create the kind of schisms that will set the party back and that former leader Stephen Harper worked to avoid.
Long-awaited collective agreements are finally being settled with the unions representing Parliament’s security officers, just in time for a new round of talks.