Letter to ON Solicitor General on MAiD oversight

Solicitor General of Ontario
George Drew Building
25 Grosvenor St.
Toronto, ON M7A 1Y6
 
Dear Minister,
 
We are deeply concerned to hear about the changes to the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario’s MAiD Death Review Committee. 
 
The Globe & Mail reports the call for new members of the MDRC is limited to those “interested in supporting MAiD practice” (“Ontario shifts role of MAiD committee from oversight to guidance,” April 14, 2026). It is troubling to learn that language emphasizing “independent expert review” has been removed and replaced with language about efforts to “support emerging MAiD practice.” 
 
The MAiD Death Review Committee has played a significant role in reviewing troubling cases and reporting to the Chief Coroner.  Given the number of MAiD deaths in Ontario each year, the situations of vulnerability and lack of transparency, the work of an independent review committee is crucial, and should not be diminished or limited to MAiD proponents and providers.
 
This is also concerning in light of Dr. Catherine Frazee’s description of her experience on a curriculum committee of the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers (CAMAP), where critiques were stifled and ultimately deleted.
 
As she writes in the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies (April 15, 2026):
 
"The final product of CAMAP’s intervention would be a pedagogical apparatus engineered to exclude systemic critique, suppress moral dissent, and reframe social abandonment as private pain. The curriculum would train assessors not in ethical discernment, but in ideological compliance.
 
…When confronted with evidence that Track 2 MAiD is being used in cases where suffering stems from structural deprivation, internalized stigma, or unaddressed trauma, the institutional response has been to circle the wagons, narrow the frame, sanitize the language, and discredit the critics."
 
We urge you to ensure there is genuine transparency and accountability in the oversight of Ontario’s MAiD regime. We urge you to ensure there is a high bar for detailed, transparent, independent review of MAiD deaths in Ontario. 
 
Sincerely,