Ottawa has dropped appeals against at least three other new mothers in similar situations.
But no one has contacted Jane Kittmer, despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s assurances in the House of Commons six weeks ago that Ottawa is “looking at a way to resolve this case.”
“I was hopeful that I would be next. But it is not appearing that way,” the mother of two said Tuesday. “It seems kind of unfair that some cases are being settled and mine is not.”
Kittmer, 41, was diagnosed with adrenal cancer three years ago while on maternity leave with her second son. Now cancer-free, she is still unable to return to work due to the effects of chemotherapy. She is owed about $5,000 in EI benefits.
A spokesperson for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, whose department oversees the EI system, said only that the case was being looked into.
Kittmer won her case last December, a month after Parliament voted unanimously to amend the Employment Insurance Act to ensure those who become seriously ill while receiving maternity and parental benefits are also eligible for sickness benefits.
But in January, Kittmer received notice that Ottawa was appealing to the federal court of appeal.
Harper came under fire in the Commons in March after a Star story outlined how Ottawa continues to fight Kittmer while heralding its new law aimed at helping parents like her.
Despite the prime minister’s assurances, Kittmer’s lawyer Stephen Moreau says no one in Ottawa has approached him about resolving her case.
“I don’t know whether the prime minister was lying or whether he was being mislead,” he said. “All I know is he said it was his intention to resolve the case and not one step has been taken in over six weeks to do so.”
“I’m not sure they have any intention of settling her case at all,” he said. “They are trying to avoid creating a precedent.”
Ottawa’s EI changes stem from a precedent-setting 2011 case involving Toronto mother Natalya Rougas, who was diagnosed with breast cancer while receiving parental benefits.
After several appeals, an EI umpire ruled that government officials had been misinterpreting the spirit of the original 2002 law. The umpire advised the government to either direct its officials to interpret the law more liberally or draft new legislation.
Moreau filed a class-action suit in January 2012 to win benefits for as many as 60,000 other women who he argues have been wrongly denied EI sickness benefits since 2002.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Laurie Monsebraaten
No comments:
Post a Comment