Legality of euthanasia occurred in September 2016. In September 2014, the Federal Euthanasia Commission gave convicted rapist and murderer Frank Van Den Bleeken the right to assisted suicide. Van Den Bleeken had served decades in prison for a 1989 crime and no longer wished to live. Over a dozen other inmates filed similar petitions. In January 2015, the Justice Ministry acknowledged that Van Den Bleeken's doctors recommended against euthanasia and that alternative psychological care would be sought for him. Voluntary active euthanasia, called "physician assisted dying", is legal in Canada for all people over the age of 18 who have a terminal illness
Justin Trudeau ceding a majority of the seats to the opposition. Trudeau acknowledged the opposition's concerns that "we were perhaps behaving in a way that was resembling more the previous government than the kind of approach and tone that we promised throughout the electoral campaign", and stated they changed course to show otherwise. On February 1, 2017, the newly appointed Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould announced that the government had abandoned the electoral reform project and it was no longer a priority in her mandate letter from Trudeau. In the letter, Trudeau wrote that "a clear preference for a new electoral