Justice Minister Sean Fraser said he and Health Minister Marjorie Michel will outline the "path forward" on assisted dying before the House of Commons votes Wednesday on a private member's bill which would block expanding assisted dying to cover people suffering from mental illnesses.

As it stands, people who are suffering from a grievous and irremediable mental illness are set to become eligible to be assessed for medical assistance in dying, or MAID, in March.

A committee of members of Parliament and senators studied whether the country is prepared for that to happen last spring.

The committee's final report in June, endorsed by Conservative and Liberal members, recommended the government indefinitely exclude people with mental illnesses from access to MAID.

The Conservative private member's bill, championed by MPs Tamara Jansen and Andrew Lawton, would prevent the expansion from happening.

It is scheduled for a vote at second reading in the House of Commons on Wednesday. MPs could kill the bill with a no vote, while a yes vote would send it to committee for further study.

Fraser would not say how the government plans to vote on the legislation. The Globe and Mail reported that, based on a Liberal Research Bureau briefing note sent to the party's MPs, the Liberal cabinet will vote against the bill.

Jansen told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday she was "extremely disappointed" to hear the Liberals plan to oppose the bill.

"It seems like political games," she said.

Government House leader Steven MacKinnon said Wednesday that votes on private member's bills are typically free votes, meaning backbench MPs can choose to vote against the government if they wish.

Some Liberal MPs who previously voted in favour of similar legislation in a previous Parliament said they planned to support Fraser's approach and vote against the Conservative bill. 

Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski, who co-chaired the committee that studied the expansion, said he would support the government if it followed the committee's recommendations.

"I will follow along with the government plans. I think we're going in the right direction on this," he said.

His caucus colleague Wayne Long, who also voted in favour of restricting MAID for mental illness in the past, said he was "happy to support Minister Fraser" on Wednesday.

Quebec Liberal MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos said she planned to vote in favour of the Conservative bill. 

The parliamentary committee heard from witnesses who argued that it's not possible to determine reliably when a mental illness has become irremediable. It also heard from a number of witnesses opposed to assisted dying in general.

Several senators who sat on the committee wrote their own opinion, arguing its process was flawed and biased.

Fraser said Tuesday his office sought opinions from people with a wide range of perspectives after the report was released.

"I feel confident that we've heard a range of different views in the development of the policy process," he said.

The government expanded the assisted-dying regime in 2021 after a court challenge in Quebec.

For the first time since MAID became legal in 2016, that law allowed people whose deaths were not reasonably foreseeable to seek a medically assisted death. It temporarily excluded people with only a mental illness to allow further study of the eligibility criteria. That exclusion has been extended until March.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 6, 2026.

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