Canada - Parents to be paid for kids committing crimes

The oposition parties teamed up to get a new bill through committee, though it hasn't passed the commons yet. The bill expands EI (employement insurance) benefits to parents who are forced to take time off from work after there child is injured while committing a crime.

www.calgarysun.com...

OTTAWA — A Commons committee is recommending Parliament pass a Bloc Quebecois bill that could see parents paid up to two years of leave and one year of employment insurance payments if their children are injured while committing a crime.

Opposition parties joined forces Tuesday to pass Bill C-343 through the Commons human resources committee. The bill is meant to expand provisions of compassionate leave available through the EI system, but a Conservative MP opposed to the bill says it could also reward the parents of junior convicts.

The bill would allow up to two years of family leave for parents whose children suffer, “...a serious physical injury during the commission or as the direct result of a criminal offence.” While the intention is to help victims, Saskatchewan Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott is worried the bill could help criminals as well.

“If a 16-year-old falls down the stairs in the process of robbing someone's house and becomes temporarily disabled, it appears that this bill allows the parent of the child to stay at home and get paid through EI to care for them,” Vellacott said during a committee meeting last week. “If that's the case, I don't think that's fair.”

Bloc MP France Bonsant, the sponsor of the bill, said she doesn't see a problem with that.

“If a child makes a mistake, should the parents be the ones to pay? I don't think so,” Bonsant said.

Bonsant said cases of parents being paid to look after children who were injured while committing crimes would be rare, and she supports those payments.

“This supports families and their children,” Bonsant said.

It's stupidity like this that is bankrupting countries. The kids who are most likely to get hurt committing the crimes are the ones least likely to get any benefit out of this other than that mom or dad can now get paid to sit on there ass and ignore them more hours of the day. This is total insanity.

If it wasn't for that bill, the state would have to pay to provide healthcare for the criminal, in which case that would cost a lot more to canadian taxpayers. On Employment Insurance, there's a limit, which is a little less than 2000$/month or 43200$/year.


Here's some more info on the system: Employment Insurance

Paying a parent cost less than a year long hospitalization...

reply to post by Vio1ion


The issue isn't do we pay the parents vs. putting them in jail. The problem is that the parents get paid leave to take care of the kids who where injured while committing a crime, the kids could still end up in jail. This sends the message that crime pays. The outcome of crime should be hardship for you and your family, if the only consequence of the crime is a positive then there is no deterant to re-offending.

Or the logic could be followed that by enabling the parents to stay home, they might have a positive impact on their child's future behavior.
I don't agree with the idea though. Just more nanny-state legislation IMO. I was just devil's advocatin'.

Originally posted by blamethegreys
Or the logic could be followed that by enabling the parents to stay home, they might have a positive impact on their child's future behavior.
I don't agree with the idea though. Just more nanny-state legislation IMO. I was just devil's advocatin'.

Most of the kids likely to turn to this level of crime are past the stage where it will have had a positive impact, and to be perfectly honest most of the parents who will use this program are the ones who haven't bothered to parent before. I see this being a way for people to sit around for a couple years and get a hand out, all the while blaming the system and schools for the way there child turned out.