A Calgary mother on maternity leave who was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer has been denied additional sickness benefits despite Ottawa’s pledge to ensure new mothers who become seriously ill can access the benefit.Jennifer McCrea was about eight months into her maternity leave with her second child last July when her doctor discovered early-stage breast cancer.
Since McCrea carries a gene mutation that makes her highly susceptible to aggressive and often fatal breast cancer, the 34-year-old mother opted for a double mastectomy.
When her doctor told her she would need six weeks to recover from the August surgery, McCrea contacted her Employment Insurance office to apply for sickness benefits. But the office told her that since she was on maternity leave and not available for work, she was not eligible for the benefit.
Coincidentally, McCrea got her cancer diagnosis the same day Toronto’s Natalya Rougas — another new mother diagnosed with breast cancer — won her appeal for additional sickness benefits while on maternity leave.
In that precedent-setting case, Justice J.R. Marin ruled that legislative changes to the EI Act in 2002 were intended to give women on maternity leave access to additional sickness benefits immediately before, during and after receiving maternal/parental benefits. And yet EI regulations that require a person to be available for work, make it impossible for women on maternity leave to qualify for sickness benefits, he noted. Justice Marin suggested a more “liberal interpretation” of the act or legislative changes to fix the problem.
In accepting the ruling last August, a spokesperson for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said the government “is committed to maintaining fairness” for women who become seriously ill during maternity leave and would be making legislative changes to reflect the ruling.
A girlfriend happened to see Rougas interviewed on TV and urged McCrea to appeal late last month.
“I was shocked so I asked EI for the decision in writing and immediately contacted my MP’s office,” McCrea said in a telephone interview from Calgary.
McCrea also contacted Rougas’s Toronto lawyer Stephen Moreau, who specializes in Employment Insurance law.
“I was just so spit-firing mad, I did whatever I had to do,” said McCrea who was so incapacitated by her August breast surgery that for several weeks she could barely lift her arms, let alone feed or care for her baby.
“I have been paying into (Employment Insurance) since I started working when I was 16 years old . . . . And now they tell me I don’t get it? It’s very frustrating.”
Constituency staff for McCrea’s MP, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, got back to McCrea by email within several days. But this time, EI officials said she may be eligible for sickness benefits if she can show she is incapable of returning to work when her maternity leave expires at the end of this month.
But Moreau, who has filed an appeal on McCrea’s behalf, says that explanation flies in the face of Justice Marin’s July ruling.
“I didn’t see anything in the ruling that said the person should only be able to make their claim if they are close to the end of their leave,” he said in an interview.
“We spent a year and a half on this. We got an answer. And now apparently that isn’t good enough,” he said.
Moreau estimates between 3,000 and 4,000 women a year should be benefiting from the case.
In Ottawa, Finley’s spokesperson said although the government is unable to provide specific detail on individual cases, “we do empathize with Ms. McCrea and her family.”
“Our government is committed to reviewing legislation to ensure that the needs of Canadians are properly met by this program,” said Alyson Queen.
McCrea, who says she is “living proof of the benefits of early detection,” has recovered from her surgery and is cancer-free.
She has nothing but praise for Rougas, who fought her case while undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.
“Natalya is such a brave fighter,” McCrea said. “I want to make sure other women benefit from that fight.”
Origin
Source: Health Zone
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