Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced new financial measures Friday for parents of children who are killed or missing due to a criminal act, in order to help them grieve and get their lives back on track without having to worry about paying the bills or losing their jobs.
Harper announced that parents who take time off work to cope with the death or disappearance of a child will receive up to $350 per week for up to 35 weeks.
Parents would need to have earned a minimum of $6,500 in the previous calendar year in order to qualify for the payments.
"This will not bring justice to them but it will contribute to giving the parents of the victims an opportunity to get their lives back under control," Harper said, speaking in French in Quebec.
In addition, he said, Canada's Labour Code will be amended to ensure that "employees of federally regulated companies can preserve their job security while they are on extended leave."
The federally regulated employees would have to be on unpaid leave from their employer in order to qualify for the $350 weekly stipend.
The Conservatives said they expect 1,000 families will benefit from the new measure each year.
Many parents dealing with the death or disappearance of a child simply can't work, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley told CTV's Power Play on Friday.
"It's an ongoing problem for them, they have to go to police inquiries and things like that," she said. "They're not emotionally or physically prepared and they have other demands on their time as well. We want to make sure that they have financial support to help them get through those challenging times."
While announcing the new benefit at a news conference in Sherbrooke, Que., Harper was joined by Sen. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu and members of the Murdered or Missing Persons' Families' Association.
Boisvenu founded the association after his daughter Julie was murdered in 2002.
Bruno Serre, whose 17-year-old daughter Brigitte was killed while working the night shift at a Montreal gas station in 2006, said he had to return to his job at a hardware store barely five weeks after her death.
"We had three children at home -- they had to be able to eat," Serre said.
Harper said the announcement was part of efforts to fulfill the Conservatives' goal of restoring the balance between the rights of criminals and victims.
"You know that too often victims have the sense criminals have all the rights. The pain of the victims is amplified by their sense of injustice and the feeling they have been abandoned by the justice system," Harper said at the news conference.
With files from The Canadian Press
