Human Resources committee  By the time my wife died, I had been deeply involved in caring for her for a long time. The moment when she died brought me into a new phase of grief, which of course started before the very end. You then have the additional burden, as you say, of planning the funeral and windin

Human Resources committee  Yes, we just want to applaud the committee, Mr. Jeneroux and all the parties for coming together. This is a really important reform. We're so pleased to be part of this process.

Human Resources committee  Absolutely.

Human Resources committee  We certainly believe there are others, in addition to the caregiver, who are bereaved and need the time. We also believe that if EI steps up and supports this measure, we're going to see the provinces fall into place very quickly. That's the key order of business.

Human Resources committee  I'll defer to Mr. Jeneroux, but I think there are quite a variety of approaches across the country. The importance of this legislation is that a lot of provinces look to the federal government in terms of providing models. As Mr. Jeneroux suggested, we hope those that aren't pr

Human Resources committee  Madam Chabot, you said that this won't change the world. I agree with you that it doesn't, but it's the beginning of a change. The analogy that I would use is if you go back 30 or 40 years, there was effectively no maternity leave in Canada. We gradually expanded it in an iterati

Human Resources committee  Absolutely. We believe, as I said in my opening presentation, that a right that you can't access because you can't afford it is not fully a right. I had that privileged circumstance. I did not have to worry in the same way that many people do about losing a job or losing pay. Tha

Human Resources committee  I just want to support what Mr. Jeneroux said. We see this legislation as setting a standard and setting a pathway for further steps, and at the provincial level as well.

Human Resources committee  I'd just add quickly that we have a gap in the research. We don't really understand right now fully the burden of grief, how many people grieve or the pace of grieving. Certainly there isn't much in Canada to know with precision how much time people need. Those needs would be var

Human Resources committee  I'm afraid I'll have to defer to Mr. Jeneroux on that. I'm not really an expert on the technicalities. The alliance really believes that we need to move on a whole bunch of fronts to improve the provisions for the bereaved.

Human Resources committee  If I could just say briefly, a critical part of why we wanted to address the issue of grief is that I think it falls in a kind of ground that people don't fully understand. Grief is a normal, natural process. It's not a mental illness. It's not in itself a sign of ill health. In

Human Resources committee  Mr. Chair, honourable members, thank you for inviting the Canadian Grief Alliance to speak to you today. We are a coalition of grief experts and 150 leading health organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association and the Canadian Psychi

Health committee  We know from the research that complex grief, by which we mean people who are not allowed to grieve in the normal way, the natural way for those who are privileged to have family, friends, space and time to recover their normal lives, can tip people into more serious mental healt

Health committee  We've interacted at the moment principally with the federal government. We've been trying to get our message out through media. What you were saying really touched me. I lost my wife four years ago to cancer. I was able to be at her bedside. We had a funeral. Family and friends

Health committee  Mr. Chair and honourable members, thank you for inviting the Canadian Grief Alliance to speak to you today. We're a coalition of grief experts and more than 150 leading health organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association, and the Ca