The Farewell Foundation for the Right to Die has filed suit challenging the Registrar of Corporations denial of the organization’s application to incorporate. The Registrar denied the application on the basis that organizing to assist those who seek to commit suicide is not a legally permissible purpose. The petition in the law suit is available here.
Motions in the case are scheduled to be heard by the British Columbia Supreme Court on August 2 & 3, 2011. On the first day, lawyers will argue whether to proceed on the basis of Farewell’s appeal against the BC Registrar decision to deny incorporation to Farewell Foundation, or the civil claim against the Attorney General of Canada.
On the second day the Attorney General of Canada will argue its motion on Farewell’s standing to challenge s.241(b) of the Criminal Code. Farewell Foundation will argue that its founding directors have a direct interest in s.241(b) by virtue of the BC Registry decision to deny incorporation, that the Foundation’s purposes are to assist members to end their lives, and that certain members of the Foundation are diagnosed with conditions that are expected to lead to intolerable pain and suffering and they wish the option of ending their lives with assistance.
In April, 2011 the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association filed Lee Carter, et al. v. Attorney General, a separate attack on the law prohibiting assisted suicide. A copy of the amended notice of claim in that case can be found here. Additional information about the case can be found here.
Both the Farewell Foundation and the BCCLA cases seek to overturn Rodriguez v. British Columbia, 3 SCR 517 (1993), a Canadian Supreme Court case upholding the government’s ability to outlaw assisted suicide. A copy of the opinion can be found here.