Bill 129 explained in plain English
Regulated Health Professions Amendment Act (Freedom of Conscience in Health Care), 2017
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
Bill 129 makes participation in medical assistance in dying voluntary for regulated health professionals in Ontario and provides them with protection from sanctions for refusing to participate.
This bill amends the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, to state that participation by members of regulated health professions in medical assistance in dying is voluntary. It also clarifies what constitutes participation and provides protections for members who refuse to participate. The bill states that it prevails over other legislation in case of conflict and specifies its commencement date.
- Amends the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, to declare that member participation in medical assistance in dying is voluntary.
- States that members of regulated health professions will not face penalties or sanctions for refusing to participate in medical assistance in dying.
- Defines what 'participation' means in the context of medical assistance in dying, including performing, assisting, or referring.
- Specifies actions that are not considered participation, such as providing information about access to medical assistance in dying, giving a patient their medical record, or facilitating a transfer of care.
- Declares that this Act prevails over other legislation in cases of conflict.
- Sets the commencement date for the Act.
- Members of regulated health professions in Ontario
- Patients seeking medical assistance in dying
- Health professionals have the right to voluntarily participate in medical assistance in dying.
- Health professionals are protected from civil, administrative, disciplinary, employment, credentialing, regulatory, or other sanctions, penalties, loss of privileges, loss of membership, or other liability for refusing to participate in medical assistance in dying.
- Providing information about access to medical assistance in dying, a patient's medical record to the patient, or facilitating a transfer of care upon request are not considered participation.
- In case of conflict with other legislation, the provisions of this new section of the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, prevail.
- The Act comes into force on the later of the day Bill 84 (Medical Assistance in Dying Statute Law Amendment Act, 2016) receives Royal Assent and the day Bill 129 receives Royal Assent.
- Members are protected from civil, administrative, disciplinary, employment, credentialing, regulatory or other sanction or penalty, or loss of privileges, loss of membership or any other liability for refusing to participate in medical assistance in dying.
- The exact commencement date depends on the Royal Assent of two different bills (Bill 129 and Bill 84).
- The definition of 'medical assistance in dying' refers to the Criminal Code (Canada), and the specifics of that definition are not detailed within this bill.
- The term 'member' is used without explicit definition within the provided text, though it is understood to refer to members of regulated health professions.
Adds a new section (29.2) that makes participation in medical assistance in dying voluntary for members of regulated health professions and provides protections against sanctions for those who refuse to participate.
Source: Section 1
The new section clarifies what constitutes participation in medical assistance in dying and lists actions that are not considered participation.
Source: Section 1 (adding section 29.2)
The new section states that it prevails over other legislation in the event of a conflict.
Source: Section 1 (adding section 29.2 (6))
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill does not have a published recorded division in the current official sources, so representative-by-representative vote counts are not shown.
No published representative vote breakdown
The current official sources do not publish a recorded division breakdown for this bill, so there is no representative-by-representative table to show.
Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced