Take Action on Conscience Rights

Call to Action

• Hear from doctors explaining why this issue is so critical.
• Find your province and a sample letter you can use to write to your provincial health minister
• The campaign website is www.canadiansforconscience.ca.

The EFC is partnering with the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience in its Call for Conscience campaign, including special time-limited campaigns in various provinces.

These campaigns encourage residents to contact their provincial politicians to ask for strong conscience protection in current legislation.

Latest Updates

• Visit TheEFC.ca/Euthanasia and click "What's Happening" to get the latest news on related court cases, letters to government and more.

Quick Summary

• Most provinces outside of Ontario (and most jurisdictions worldwide that allow assisted death) are finding ways to protect the conscience of healthcare workers when there are requests for assisted death.
• But Ontario has adopted a policy that doctors must provide effective referrals even for procedures that violate their deeply held beliefs. This means they must refer a patient seeking Medical Assistance in Dying (or any other procedure such as surgical abortion) to a physician or nurse practitioner who is willing to offer the procedure.
• All Canadians can urge their MPP and Provincial Minister of Health to protect conscience rights. The EFC encourages Canadians to call or write your MPP using the links at the top of this page. You can also help raise awareness in your church or plan a meeting with your provincial government representative using materials from that website.
• Canadians can also contact their federal MP regarding proposed legislation which would make it a criminal offence to compel a health care professional to participate in medical assistance in dying. The most recent version of this private member's bill was C-418 (the bill died at the last election call). It would also have made it an offence to fire or refuse to hire a health care worker because of their conscientious objection. You can still draw some wording from the sample letters from our Bill C-418 page if you want.