Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. My name is Sarah Cormier. This is my husband, Lee Cormier. We are here today in two capacities—as advocates who have spent a decade fighting for legislative change, but most importantly, in our favourite role, as parents of Quinn Isla Cormier. Quinn died on December 28, 2014, from sudden infant death syndrome.
Our journey began with motion 110, a call to action that laid the groundwork for what we are discussing today. We have spent over a decade telling the story of our Quinn and her legacy, so that other parents wouldn't have to fight the government while they were fighting to survive their own grief.
When Quinn died, the world stopped. Standing at the Service Canada office less than a week after Quinn died, we were told, “Your child ceases to exist, therefore your benefits cease to exist.” Under our current employment insurance system, the moment a child dies, a parent's eligibility to be supported vanishes.
I want you to imagine the administrative cruelty of that. Within days of losing Quinn, we were thrust into a world of grief and were seen as debtors in the eyes of the system. The current system is telling parents to navigate a complex bureaucratic maze at the exact moment we are most broken. The system is telling them that their role as a parent, and the support that comes with that, ends the second a child dies. Bill C-222 says otherwise. It says that the care doesn't end; it just changes form.
When we introduced motion 110 years ago, we were asking for a foot in the door. We were asking for the government to recognize that infant loss is a unique, devastating gap in our social safety net. The seven recommendations put forth in the 2018 parliamentary report “Supporting Families After the Loss of a Child” were very clear. I'd like to draw your attention to this recommendation: “ensure that there are ways to make reporting the death of a child [seamless], easier and less traumatic to parents to ensure that parents are treated with compassion”.
In the 10 years since we started this work, thousands of Canadian families have fallen through that gap. They have missed payments. They have had to make the choice between paying for a funeral or paying their rent. They have been forced back to work while still in shock. Bill C-222 is the culmination of a decade of heartbreak and hope. It provides continuity. It ensures that maternity leave and parental leave remain intact, giving families the grace period they need to breathe without the fear of an EI clawback.