Ottawa, Canada, Nov 21, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said Nov. 17 that debate on assisted suicide should be reopened in Parliament and that Canadian laws forbidding it should be reviewed in light of two recent events in British Columbia and Quebec.
A week earlier, a jury in a British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that Evelyn Martens, 73, was not guilty of assisting in the suicides of Monique Charest, a 64-year-old former Catholic nun, and of Leyanne Burchell, 52.
Charest and Burchell committed suicide in 2002.
Martens admitted to knowing the women, giving them information on how to commit suicide, counselling them and being present at their deaths.