Adult Upgrading English 80 Winter 2024

Personal, emotional, and academic challenges are a common part of student life. Counsellors provide a safe and confidential space for you to explore your concerns and work collaboratively with you to strengthen your ability to cope.

On this site you can learn about the counselling support available to Okanagan College students, find out how to book a counselling appointment, and access helpful online resources to help you with your personal, career, and academic development.

Learn about the impact of suicide in Canada and populations with higher risk for suicide.

Assisted suicide is the intentional termination of one’s life, assisted by someone who provides the means or knowledge, or both. (See also Suicide.) Between 1892 and 2016, assisted suicide was illegal in Canada under section 241(b) of the Criminal Code. In 2015, after decades of various legal challenges, the Supreme Court of Canada decided unanimously to allow physician-assisted suicide. In June 2016, the federal government passed the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Act, which established the eligibility criteria and procedural safeguards for medically assisted suicide. In March 2021, new legislation was passed that expanded eligibility for MAID.

In the early 1990s, Sue Rodriguez submitted to the courts that section 241(b) of the Criminal Code, which prohibited assisted suicide, was constitutionally invalid. (See also Assisted Suicide in Canada.) Rodriguez suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and wanted the legal right to have a physician’s help in ending her own life. On 30 September 1993, a 5–4 majority of the Supreme Court of Canada upheld section 241(b), declaring that it was constitutional and did not violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Nonetheless, Rodriguez committed suicide in February 1994, assisted by an anonymous doctor and in the presence of NDP MP Svend Robinson, who had championed her cause. In 2015, the Supreme Court decided unanimously to strike down the prohibition and allow medically assisted suicide, which was officially legalized with the passing of the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Act on 17 June 2016.

In 1993, Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer killed his severely disabled daughter Tracy. His prosecution for murder attracted national and international attention, and raised contentious issues concerning euthanasia.

This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on March 9, 1998.Until the 2015 Supreme Court of Canada ruling on assisted suicided, a person helping another person to end their life was in contravention of section 241(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada, which prohibited assisted suicide.

In Carter,v. Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada found that Section 241(b) of the Criminal Code, which prohibits assisting suicide, and section 14, which provides that no person may consent to death being inflicted on them thus prohibiting assistance in dying to be unconstitutional and a violation of the a persons Charter Rights. The Supreme Court of Canada gave the government until June 6, 2016, to create a new law with regard to medically assisted dying.

In its landmark decision Carter v Canada (Attorney General), the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the criminal prohibition on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia for certain persons in certain circumstances violated their rights to life, liberty, and security of the person in sec. 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and thus was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court in effect overruled its earlier decision, Rodriguez v British Columbia (Attorney General), which upheld the prohibition as constitutionally valid, on the basis of changes in Charter jurisprudence and in the social facts since Rodriguez was decided. We argue that the Supreme Court’s Carter decision shows conceptual disagreements with its Rodriguez decision concerning the nature and scope of the sec. 7-protected interests and the accompanying principles of fundamental justice. Not only do these conceptual differences have little to do with the changes that the Court in Carter invoked for ‘revisiting’ Rodriguez, the Court’s articulation of the sec. 7 interests, particularly the right to life, and the principles of fundamental justice, especially the principle of over breadth, are problematic on their own terms. Furthermore, the way in which the Court dealt with evidence regarding abuses in permissive jurisdictions is also subject to criticism. We recommend that if, as now seems inevitable, legislation is introduced, it should mandate that assisted suicide and euthanasia be performed by specially licensed non-medical personnel and only on the authorization of a Superior Court judge. We also reject the key recommendations recently issued by the Provincial Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying.

On February 6, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Carter v. Canada that parts of the Criminal Code would need to change to satisfy the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The parts that prohibited medical assistance in dying would no longer be valid. The Supreme Court gave the government until June 6, 2016, to create a new law.

In June 2016, the Parliament of Canada passed federal legislation that allows eligible adults in Canada to request medical assistance in dying. The legislation has been been amended on a number of occasions.. It is still under going legislative change.

In August 2021 the federal government established an Expert Panel on MAiD and Mental Illness.

Presented to the House October 2022.

Presented to the House February 2023..

Present to the House January 2024.

Medical assistance in dying (MAID) is a very personal choice and a deeply sensitive topic. In Canada, MAID may be an option for some people who are suffering intolerably due to an eligible medical condition. The Government of Canada recognizes that mental illness can cause the same level of suffering as that of physical illnesses. Under Canada's current MAID law, people suffering solely from a mental illness who meet all the eligibility criteria and safeguards would have been eligible for MAID as of March 17, 2024. However on February 1, 2024, The Government of Canada introduced legislation that extended the temporary exclusion of eligibility for MAiD for person's who's sole medical condition is mental illness, until March 17, 2027.

Annual reports collected under the 2018 Regulations for the Monitoring of Medical Assistance in Dying.

This is a automatically executed OCtopus search medical assistance in dying OR MAiD.

The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) recognizes that: (1) Each First Nation community has its own distinct ways, protocols, traditions, and teachings with respect to the end-of-life journey; and (2) Each First Nations person has the right to be self-determining and choose their own path.

Health Canada has launched an online engagement tool to gather the views and perspectives of Indigenous Peoples on medical assistance in dying (MAID). This online tool is part of a broader engagement process underway in collaboration with Indigenous Peoples on MAID in 2023 and 2024.

In this study, Indigenous Elders in Canada were interviewed to explore their conceptualizations of death and dying, particularly in relation to suicide. Through reflexive thematic analysis, three key themes were developed: Indigenous conceptions of death and dying, Christian influences on views of suicide, and indirect suicide. The theme of Indigenous conceptualizations of death and dying included the subthemes of spirituality and life after death, highlighting the importance of spiritual beliefs in Indigenous culture and knowledge systems. The impact of Christian influences on views of suicide was also explored, with participants discussing the complex nature of the relationship between Christianity and Indigenous peoples. Finally, the theme of indirect suicide was analyzed, referring to deaths resulting from behaviors that do not necessarily fit within the conventional definition of suicide. Overall, this study highlights the importance of honoring Indigenous cultural knowledge in research related to suicide prevention in Indigenous communities.

Suicide rates among First Nations, Métis and Inuit are consistently and significantly higher than the rate among non-Indigenous people in Canada. Suicide in these cases has multiple social and individual causes. Historical factors, including the effects of colonization and polices of assimilation, also affect rates of suicide among Indigenous peoples in Canada. Various Indigenous organizations aim to integrate Indigenous knowledge with evidence-informed approaches to prevent suicide.

Suicide rates have consistently been shown to be higher among First Nations people, Métis and Inuit in Canada than the rate among non-Indigenous people; however, suicide rates vary by community, Indigenous group, age group and sex. The historical and ongoing impacts of colonization, forced placement of Indigenous children in residential schools in the 19th and 20th centuries, removal of Indigenous children from their families and communities during the “Sixties scoop” and the forced relocation of communities has been well documented. These resulted in the breakdown of families, communities, political and economic structures; loss of language, culture and traditions; exposure to abuse; intergenerational transmission of trauma; and marginalization, which are suggested to be associated with the high rates of suicide. While suicide among Indigenous people has been examined previously, studies were based on a decades-old cohort or used an area-based geozones approach. Past studies also examined suicides among only one or two Indigenous groups using the same methodology. Finally, they did not examine suicide among Indigenous people for some geographies such as on and off reserve, rural areas and small, medium and large population centres.

Streaming Video from CBC News. in 2013. Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day and psychiatrist Cornelia Wieman from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) discuss the crisis in Attawapiskat and possible solutions. This comes after what Chief Day calls the "boiling up of colonialism like never before" — that is, after 11 people attempted suicide in one night and the community declared a state of emergency.

Library and Archives Canada began to harvest the web domain of the Federal Government of Canada starting in December 2005. As resources permit, this harvesting activity will be undertaken on a semi-annual basis. The website data which is harvested is stored in the Government of Canada Web Archive (GC WA).

The Canadian man accused of selling a lethal substance to people at risk of suicide is believed to have shipped as many as 1,200 packages to 40 countries, police said as they laid a dozen new charges in a sprawling investigation. Kenneth Law, 57, previously charged with two counts of counselling or aiding suicide in the province of Ontario, is now facing 12 new charges in connection with deaths across the province, the York regional police inspector Simon James told reporters. The victims range in age from 16 to 36.

In the the main search box enter Kenneth Law and in the search box directly to the right select the Document Title - TITLE option.

Sodium nitrite (NaNO2) is a compound with broad practical applications in food preservation, automotive maintenance, and animal control. Sodium nitrite is also potentially fatal when ingested, as it interferes with the ability of red blood cells to transport oxygen. While incidents of accidental consumption have been reported in the literature, case reports of sodium nitrite being used as a pharmacological suicide agent are becoming more frequent. Therefore, a study was undertaken to evaluate trends in sodium nitrite deaths in South Australia between 2000 and 2019. All cases of fatal sodium nitrite ingestion were identified in the Toxicology database and autopsy reports at Forensic Science SA (FSSA). Ten cases of fatal sodium nitrite ingestion were identified, with the rate of cases increasing significantly over the study period (p > .001). Of the ten deaths attributed to sodium nitrite toxicity, eight were male, and two were female. The age range of decedents was 22–74 years (mean 51.9, SD 21.1), 22–74 years for males (mean 58.4, SD 18.2) and 23–29 years for females (mean 26.0, SD 4.2). Males (80%) and those with a history of depression and/or suicidal ideation (70%) were over-represented within the study population. While autopsy findings were generally consistent with the literature, scene findings emphasized the accessibility of sodium nitrite to the general public. This study highlights both a significant increasing trend in the use of sodium nitrite in suicides and important analytical limitations in the evaluation of suspected cases.