Amendment to Bill C-7: The Importance of Collecting Race-Based Data on Medical Assistance in Dying

On February 11, 2021 Senator Omidvar gave a speech in support of Senator Jaffer’s motion that Bill C-7 be amended to include the collection of information about the race of a person who requests or receives medical assistance in dying, if the person consents to providing this information.

Hon. Ratna Omidvar: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak in favour of Senator Jaffer’s amendment to collect race-based data for MAID for Bill C-7.

This amendment brings me back to the days last June when we all rose in this chamber and took a stand against racism. I remind us of our precedent-setting emergency debate, our Committee of the Whole, and an ongoing inquiry. In other words, we put racism on notice in the Senate.

In the debates, Senator Moodie said, “. . . Racism is a threat to Canada and the stability of our society.” Senator Mégie reminded us that it is our duty to give a “. . . voice to those people who are demanding justice, and it is our duty as senators to take action.”

I agree with that sentiment, but now we need to go beyond words and aspirations, and reach for concrete, legislative action.

Action, we know, must be grounded in evidence. We know what gets measured, gets noted, gets done, gets acted on. We need data, and we need to look at it through a multidimensional lens by disaggregating it so that we can arrive at a fulsome picture of the truth and not just a half-truth.

Many senators articulated that point in June. Now Senator Jaffer’s motion is doing exactly what we called for— collecting race-based data. At committee, the government freely admitted that when they did a GBA+ analysis, they failed to conduct a full race-based analysis on the impacts of Bill C-7 on various communities. Why? I don’t know, but I can hazard a guess.

I have issues with the notion that race — a defining feature of Canada’s demography, with close to a quarter of our population today coming from a racial minority background, predicted to grow to more than 36% of our population in the next 15 years — merits a mere plus, an afterthought at best, behind the three letters GBA. No wonder, then, that the plus gets forgotten and becomes a footnote.

This is why this amendment focuses on race only, to make sure that race is not forgotten. When we continue to be forgotten, ignored, overlooked, it is no longer sufficient simply to tilt at the sails. We need to steer instead to a different destination. Senator Jaffer says, “No more.” I agree with her.

I want to be clear about what we know and don’t know. We know there is racism in Canada. We know that it exists in our health care system. We know that people from different backgrounds interact with the health care system and have completely different experiences based on their race.

But we know a little bit more as well. We know that the social determinants of health, such as poverty, housing and homelessness, are important contributing factors that make people sick. And we know that racialized people find themselves disproportionately living in poverty, lacking adequate housing, and therefore have worse health outcomes. Because they have worse health outcomes, they need to interact with the health care system, which we know is racist. Their need to interact is greater. So as you can see, this is a truly wicked problem.

But there is a lot we don’t know. We don’t know if vulnerable people will request MAID. We don’t know if they will get it. We don’t know if the race of an individual will throw up individual or systemic barriers. We don’t know if MAID will be applied equally and fairly across all demographics.

Canada is, admittedly, one of the more inclusive countries in the world, but we seem to have an aversion to collecting race-based data. Consider this: Both the U.K. and the U.S. were able to report fairly early in the pandemic on its disproportionate impact on Black people. In contrast, here in Canada, we had no clue because we did not have the data; not at the national level. I can give you the data from my city, but I’m not sure the data exists at a national level.

What will this data get us? It will be critical in creating and developing proper evidence-based policy decisions and interventions for MAID. It will guide government responses to providing resources in a strategic and effective way. It will identify gaps and barriers to MAID. It will lead to the development of culturally sensitive services and programs. It will ensure that all groups are getting equal and fair access. It will get us equity.

Clearly, we know that the government will have to work with provincial and territorial governments in coordinating this data. But that is what governments do. We should not let implementation difficulties get in the way of doing what we think is right.

I will quote Senator Moodie from our emergency debate on racism where she said:

I want history to look back and see that in this moment we did everything we could to ensure meaningful and sustainable change, that we collaborated, we set aside our agendas and we listened to Canadians.

Senator Jaffer’s amendment is not merely aspirational. It is practical, pragmatic, doable, necessary and timely. All we need now to do is to exercise our collective senatorial, political will. I urge you to do this by voting for this amendment. Thank you.