Just to explain, the discretion here is entirely the employer's to state that there will not be permissible leaves of less than a day. The evidence before the committee was that many survivors will require only an hour or two to attend to tasks, to attend to psychiatric appointments, counselling for their child, or whatever is required, and that, especially when leave is unpaid, to have to take a whole day at a minimum rather than part of a day is unnecessarily difficult and adds additional stress to the people this bill is trying to help.
The change I am suggesting, just to be clear, is to put the benefit of this provision with the victim. I recognize that the employer may prefer to say, “You have to take a whole day; I'm not going to give you part of a day”, but I suggest that this is at least as important as a Canadian's right to vote. In that case, employers must give every employee, regardless of their job category, the time it takes to run out and vote. I'm asking for the same degree of flexibility to allow an employee who is dealing with a family member or who is personally the victim of violence to take, especially since it's not a paid leave, just a few hours out of their day as a right, and not to give the employer the ability to say that the employee has to take a whole day or nothing.