Priests should withhold the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to people who have requested assisted suicide or euthanasia, according to pastoral guidelines issued by the bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

When Canada legalized assisted suicide earlier this year, the National Post’s coolly analytical Andrew Coyne wondered in a column whether we haven’t lost our way as a country. Barely two months after the legislation’s passage, a marker of how lost we are shows up in our insistence on going both ways at once.

OTTAWA – The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) is calling on the government to expand access to euthanasia in a way that, according to opponents, would make it “wide open.”

Widespread abuse of prescription painkillers is a major problem that governments are right to address. But Ontario’s recent move to become the first Canadian jurisdiction to eliminate high-dosage opioid medications from its provincial drug plan goes a step too far.

TORONTO – Respecting the moral conscience of Canadians who oppose medical aid in dying requires systemic changes to improve access to palliative care, according to those who oppose the recently legalized procedure.

A Belgian court has fined a Catholic care home for refusing to let a terminally ill woman receive a lethal injection on their property.

Court challenges to Bill C-14 are expected to come from both opponents and supporters of assisted suicide, said Euthanasia Prevention Coalition legal counsel Hugh Scher.

OTTAWA – Members of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience are taking the College of Physicians’ and Surgeons of Ontario (CSPO) to court over its assisted-suicide policy that would force health-care practitioners to refer people for assisted suicide even if it goes against their conscience.

OTTAWA – As euthanasia and assisted suicide became legal in Canada opponents vowed to continue the fight to protect conscience rights of health-care workers and Catholic institutions and to oppose inevitable court challenges to widen the net of assisted killing.

Editor’s note: Toronto’s Cardinal Thomas Collins has long been a voice in the fight against assisted suicide in Canada. Following the passing of Bill-C-14 to legalize the process, the cardinal released the following statement on the bill’s passing.

OTTAWA – The Senate has voted to accept more restrictive access to assisted suicide.

The prevailing legal vacuum around assisted suicide is unacceptable and begs a speedy end to the head-butting between the elected House of Commons and the unelected Senate — even if that means politicians forgoing summer vacations.

OTTAWA – The Liberal government today said it will reject a Senate amendment that would remove the requirement that death be reasonably foreseeable from its assisted suicide bill.

OTTAWA – Canada’s Senate passed an amended version of euthanasia and assisted suicide Bill C-14 June 15 that is almost certain to face backlash from elected Parliamentarians as it is sent back to the House of Commons.

OTTAWA – The Senate has put itself on a collision course with the House of Commons after it voted to amend the government’s assisted-suicide bill to include people who may not be facing imminent death.