CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Monday, Mar. 25, 2013 7:55PM EDT
Last Updated Tuesday, Mar. 26, 2013 9:33AM EDT
A mother and cancer survivor says she doesn?t understand why the federal government is appealing a decision that awarded her employment insurance sickness benefits worth $5,000 while she was on maternity leave.
Jane Kittmer, 41, of Stratford, Ont., told CTV?s Power Play that just a few weeks after a court ruled that she was entitled to the sickness benefits, she received a notice that Ottawa was appealing the decision.
?I found out just before Christmas that I had won my case and then a couple of weeks later I received a file,? she said. ?I just assumed that it would be ?This is how much you?re entitled to,? but it was actually the appeal coming from the government.
?I was very surprised to receive that and I?m still surprised that they?re going through and appealing this.?
Kittmer?s fight for the sickness benefits began in 2010, when during her maternity leave she was diagnosed with cancer.
Her claim for the benefits was denied because the law at the time required her to be available for work. Kittmer said the side effects from her chemotherapy treatments left her unable to return to her place of employment.
She appealed the decision, using a precedent-setting case of Toronto mother Natalyal Rougas. Rougas, like Kittmer, was diagnosed with cancer during her maternity leave.
Rougas took her case to court and in 2011 a judge ruled that she was eligible for the benefits and awarded her 15 weeks of worth of them.
Ottawa did not appeal Rougas? case and even introduced a bill correcting the issue, called the ?Helping Families in Need Act.? The act allows parents to collect EI sick benefits if they fall ill while taking parental leave.
Parliament passed the act last November. At the time the government said the act would help around 6,000 families a year.
The changed laws became effective on Sunday, meaning that anyone in Kittmer?s situation who applies for sick benefits today will be awarded them. People who applied before the laws changed are left to fight for their benefits.
Armed with the Rougas decision, Kittmer appealed her case and won. But now she?s wondering why the government is appealing her decision.
?I used her case to go to the (EI) umpire, that?s how I won my case. But they didn?t appeal hers, but now they?re appealing mine. I don?t quite understand the logic in all that,? she said.
Kittmer, who is now cancer-free, would have received around $5,000 from the sickness benefits.
Lawyer Stephen Moreau represented both women and has filed a $450- million class-action lawsuit for about 60,000 Canadian women who have been denied sickness benefits since 2002.
He told CTV News that Ottawa is resisting payment because it will set a precedent.
?They?re fighting those before the new legislation came into force. They?re saying they can?t get it, but we?re happy to give it up after March 24,? he said.
Kittmer?s case made it to the floor of the House of Commons on Monday.
NDP MP Irene Mathyssen said the case was another example of the Conservatives targeting out-of-work Canadians and restricting EI benefits.
?The Conservatives are taking a mother with cancer to court,? she said. ?For Jane Kittmer it gets worse. Not only does she have to battle cancer, she has to battle the Conservatives too.? She called on the government to drop the ?insensitive and unethical attack.?
Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said that Kittmer?s case was a result of the previous Liberal government?s rules and that the Conservatives were responsible for changing the laws.
?We?ve made tremendous improvements to the system since then,? Finley said.
With a report from CTV?s Richard Madan in Ottawa and CTV Kitchener?s Frank Lynn
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