Toronto, Monday, May 4, 2026… My name is Claire Brosseau. I am the applicant in a constitutional challenge against the Government of Canada. I have been diagnosed with a severe form of bipolar I disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other mental disorders. Over the past three decades, I have tried a wide variety of medications and treatments for my mental illness. Despite these efforts, my mental illness just continues to get worse. I have reached the limit of my ability to live like this — in a state of unrelenting suffering. 

Current MAID law discriminates against people like me. In anticipation of my litigation, I was assessed and found eligible for MAID, but I cannot access this legal medical service just because my illness is a mental illness. If my suffering were from a physical condition, I could be eligible for MAID. They are drawing a distinction that is stigmatizing, paternalistic and without any valid justification. That is discrimination. 

I have been waiting for over five years for the government to live up to its promise to lift the ban on MAID for persons with mental illness as their only condition. First, they said they needed two years to do some preparatory work. Then they said we need one more year to be ready. Then the Government of Canada said that while we know there are people who are suffering, we ask you to hang on — for three more years. This was too much to ask. I had to go to court to argue that my Charter rights are being violated by this ban. 

I filed the application in August of 2024. I trusted the legal process to move forward. My case has been fully ready to go since July 2025. I have been waiting since then for the government’s responding materials. They were finally expected on April 30^th. Last Thursday. They did not come. I am left with no idea when the government will respond. 

I want to be clear about what these delays means for me personally. Every month of delay is another month of suffering that I am told I must simply endure. I have been asked, again and again, to be patient. I was patient for years. The government’s unwillingness to respond to my claim and live up to its promises has pushed me to my absolute limit. 

Today, we are announcing that I am seeking emergency relief from the court. I should not have to do this. The government should do the right thing and lift the exclusion that denies me the relief to my suffering that I am desperate for. The government holds all the power here — the power to respect my Constitutional rights or at least, the power to move my legal case forward. It has failed people like me who should have the same access to MAID as all other Canadians who have a grievous and irremediable medical condition.   

I am asking the Court to act. I am asking Canadians to bear witness. And I am asking the Attorney General of Canada to look at what these delays cost — not in legal fees, not in political capital — but in human suffering.   

Thank you. 

— Claire Brosseau

Read the full press release.