Parliamentarians voted the doctor-assisted suicide bill one step closer to passing Wednesday, but the brief window of good faith debate is over.
The Liberals passed a motion to shut down debate, for the time being, after 21 hours and 84 speakers.
Liberals said they have to move the controversial bill forward to hit the Supreme Court of Canada's June 6 deadline to pass new legislation. That's the date when the old laws against assisted suicide get struck down.
But it sparked allegations of betrayal from opposition parties.
"This is an abomination and it abuses my privileges as a Member of Parliament," said Conservative MP Blaine Calkins.
NDP MP Peter Julian accused the Liberals of acting like Stephen Harper's Conservative government, which regularly used the same method to shut down debates.
What had been a mostly civil debate quickly devolved into a partisan feud. The opposition said the Liberals had blindsided them and their MPs were not getting a chance to speak on a crucial life-and-death issue.
The Liberals responded by pointing out they had offered to continue debate all night Tuesday, and it was the opposition who shut down debate at midnight. Conservative MP Calkins told BuzzFeed Canada his party agreed to end debate Tuesday because they thought they would have more time.
A spokesman for Liberal House Leader Dominic LeBlanc also said it was disingenuous for the Conservatives to say some of their MPs didn't get a chance to speak when two Conservatives — Garnett Genuis and Herald Albrecht — had spoken multiple times.
Ultimately, the bill passed second reading 235-75. Of those who voted no, 73 were Conservative, one was Liberal (Robert-Falcon Oullette) and one was NDP (Christine Moore). It will now move on to the committee study stage, before eventually coming back to the House for a final vote.
Meanwhile Wednesday, Senators grilled the health and justice ministers over the assisted dying plan. The ministers were asked why people with dementia cannot declare their intentions to die before their condition worsens.
Advanced directives, as they're called, are common for do-not-resuscitate orders. But they are not included in the government's legislation for doctor-assisted dying.
Independent Senator Frances Lankin asked why someone who suffers from Alzheimer's disease could not, while in sound mind, declare the wish to die once their memory totally fails.
Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said advanced directives were excluded from the bill to protect the vulnerable.
Only four countries allow people to consent to death in advance, and two of those — Belgium and Luxembourg — require the patient to be irreversibly unconscious.
Colombia allowed advanced consent of death last year, but Canadian justice staff said there is no data yet available from that country. That just leaves the Netherlands.
A government analysis of the law in the Netherlands showed that physicians were unwilling to kill dementia patients who were conscious yet incapable of expressing their wishes. Family also often refused to sign off. Justice staff said there is essentially no data on what advanced directives for suicide would look like.
“One could provide that advanced directive and 10 years later there's no confirmation that that is in fact still their (desire)," said Wilson-Raybould.
She said the issue, and the bill itself, will need further study but there is not time to do so before the June 6 deadline.