The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of a group of six Quebec women in a case that could help thousands of women denied employment benefits.
The women challenged the fact that they were denied employment insurance (EI) benefits when they lost their jobs shortly before, during or after maternity leave. The case was first brought forward in 2018.
In a decision released Thursday, the three-judge panel said withholding EI benefits from these women was a violation of Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
That provision guarantees everyone equality under the law and equal benefit of the law, without discrimination.
“One of the grounds listed in section 15 is sex, and it is well-established that discrimination based on pregnancy and motherhood is sex-based discrimination,” the judges wrote.
Some of the women were denied benefits because they didn’t have enough insurable work hours, or had already reached the 50-week benefit limit.
“You need to have accumulated a certain amount of hours in the last year, but you won’t be able to accumulate those hours if you’re on mat leave,” Sibel Ataogul, the lead attorney for the applicants, explained.
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She said the law allows for an extension for people detained in prison, but no similar extension currently exists for women on parental leave.
“On a more human level, it’s mind-boggling to me that this would still be an issue,” Ataogul said. “It’s really a perpetuation of decades and decades of sexism.”
The court found that limiting the ability to stack EI benefits with maternal or parental benefits disproportionately affected women. This is because women are the only ones who can accumulate maternity benefits, and make up a large proportion of parental benefit claims.
“For on average nine years after you’ve had your child, you’re still suffering from the disadvantage in comparison to men who have children,” Ataogul said. “So it was just a no-brainer to say, by denying women this benefit that they have the right to get because they were actually doing the labour of being at home, you’re perpetuating their disadvantageous position in society.”
The women, represented by the advocacy group Mouvement Action Chômage, first won their case at the General Division of the Social Security Tribunal which ruled that excluding women from EI benefits during or following a mat leave resulted in gender-based discrimination.
That decision was contested by the Employment Insurance Commission and reversed by the Court of Appeal.
The women went back to court in November 2025, at the Federal Court of Appeal, before receiving the news of their victory Wednesday.
The judges struck down the discriminatory parts of the EI Act but suspended the declaration for one year.
That means the federal government has 12 months to rewrite the law.
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“We’re hoping that the Liberals will let this decision stand and not bring us to the Supreme Court and challenge a basic equality right,” Ataogul said.
Celia Johnston, a mom in the Montreal area, said hearing the news was validating.
“It’s very validating for them to have recognized that it is discriminatory,” she told Global News. “And I think that this can only bring forward some positive change and help address that gap.”
Johnston was not a plaintiff in the case but she was also denied EI benefits when her job position dissolved while she was on mat leave in October 2025.
“It was never very clear where my case sat,” she said. “I felt very alone and frustrated because I truly didn’t understand what was happening.”
Johnston said she wasn’t aware of how many women had been impacted until it happened to her. Since she’s spoken to many women in the same situation.
“They had shared with me that they were nervous and afraid to get pregnant again and to be put in this situation again. So I think knowing that this could be resolved, it removes that fear and that additional stressor that this could happen again,” she said. “Nobody plans to have this happen to them, but to know that it could is scary.”
Johnston said she is in a better financial place now and would not expect any retroactive benefits, but continues to share her story to protect other women.
“For me, all I ever wanted was for this to change,” she said.
– With files from Elizabeth Zogalis, Global News
This has happened to me just this year. I was laid off in March and denied EI after my maternity leave. Now I’m off work and struggling to get by. (2026)
@Jack. What if you need the system? Will you feel the same way?
THIS is how ridiculous QUEBEC IS and why Alberta HAS TO GIVE QUEBEC $15 BILLION IN EQUALIZATION PAYMENTS THIS YEAR ALONE – IF YOU DO NOT PAY INTO THE SYSTEM YOU DO NOT DESERVE TO HAVE others financially support you. The QUEBEC COURTS ARE WRONG on this one UNLESS THE COURTS WANT TO FINANCIALLY SUPPORT all these women out of their own RICH POCKETS themselves. Stay OUT of my pocket from now on. My right as a canadian to no longer be financially abused by ANY court or politician any more. Pay your own way in this country same as I have been doing ALL THESE YEARS.
@ Liberal Larry
My son Jason has had his internet privileges revoked but he is demanding a DNA test claiming he is the father,not Ben.
I don’t know what happens in that basement, I’m just passing the message on to calm him down a bit
@Liberal Trans Birthing Person.
I feel your pain.When I was pregnant I attended a Liberal Party Convention. Everyone there were so excited for me.Some commented on my bulging baby bump,others on how stylish my beard was but they all applauded me.
About a week later my pregnancy took a turn for the worse.My baby bump started to soften up a bit so I decided rather than let things go to waste I removed it and made a fabulously refreshing watermelon salad with my inseminator Ben.We enjoyed it and then decided to give it another try.
Sooner or later it’s gonna work
It’s about time !
It’s about time!
Liberals are terrorists
@ “Tired” September 5, 2026 at 7:59 am
‘Define “women”’
A woman has two X chromosomes (XX) as the 23rd pair of sex chromosomes, for a total of 46 chromosomes. Surgery and hormones are cosmetic.
FIRED
Why would people “laid off” not qualify for EI, besides misfiled papers by businesses?
Or does the journalist not know the difference between laid off and let go?
So hard to discern these days so the assumption of abstract ignorance is critical.
@Ben
The women were in court against The Employment Insurance Commission – an entity of the federal government.
How’s that “good government oversight” working out for them?
@A Mom
Motherhood is a gift, not a disease that the government needs to compensate you for. How sad you see it that way.
@Liberal trans birthing person
I think I love you
A mom
YOUR CHOICE!!
THEN DON’T HAVE CHILDREN!!
Correction
Not Abominable but,
Phenomenal Amounts of Money going to Child Care Benefits!
Anonymous
“To a Mom”
I so agree with you! I’m a low income Pensioner who receives very little income annually as do others, while parents receiving Child Care Monthly Benefits makes me damn angry at the abominable amount each kid gets per Month! The Government are buying votes from those parents rather than make them each Pay for their own Kids! I wish there was a Loud Angry Protest held on the Ground of the Government in Favor for low income Seniors needing more Financial Help to get through each and every month of every year. I will never vote again until I see better Results. There’s to much given to the young these days!!
When you’re criticizing boomers do try to remember that we only received Unemployment Insurance if we were “READY, ABLE, AND WILLING” to work.
No exceptions for maternity, babies. etc.
I remember pro-union Ben from the pride festival in Toronto last summer.
He kept blabbing on about how unions protect workers while he was planting baby seeds in my manhole.
I will be contacting my lawyer and suing Ben for child support since he never called me again after he used me for quick satisfaction.
It is sad that in this day and age, birthing persons are discriminated against by the government and their employers.
I have applied for maternity leave 3 times in the past year and my employer says I cannot “take advantage of this because I am a man”.
I applied for EI benefits directly and they said since I was never pregnant, I quit my job and am not qualified for EI.
I really want to get my maternity leave done before my WNBA tryout next year but I can’t afford to.
@A mom 1046pm. I completely agree.
@Richard Cousineau
I hear you there. I’m about to lose most of what i earned and my house cause of cancer and the way this f*ckin society works. Bust your balls all your damned life, be an honest person, work hard and you lose it in the blink of an eye.
EI disability is a f*ckin joke as is CPP. We get gouged to the max. Its sickening. I get through the cancer and hopefully will retire. Mores likey to die waiting for the healthcare system her in BC though. Ive waited almost 5 years for treatment. Been waiting months for a biopsy. If I were rich, a politician or a woman, I would be done and paid by now.
Jesus, this government is all about ripping people off, gouging back everything they can. But for themselves its raise after raise and indexed to inflation, they just dont lose at all! F*CK THE LIBERALS!
Weee. I am Woman hear me roar. Well looking on the past decade or more you are dependent on the Goverments for you happiness, Income, and DEI position.
I was on disability for 15 years with cancer and that screwed my CPP when I retired. That would have been the higher money period of my working life but they excluded those years and found my school years at low income. Sometimes life just kicks you in the area most vulnerable. Thank for reading my statement
Define “women”
To “A Mom”
Society gives you plenty. Generous tax breaks per child, and a large social safety net.
Its your choice to have children. No one forced you.
Women lose out on so much when they choose to become a mother. You lose benefits, income retirement savings and more while raising a generation of new taxpayers for the government! Women should automatically be given a 5 year contribution to a pension while they raise a child. Tje first 5 years are the hardest because your child cant go to school yet and not everyone can afford childcare and mom’s usually have to make the financial sacrifice. The government should do so much more to help women financially while they raise babies and toddlers. The system remains unfair
Labours share of GDP has been falling and one of the reasons is Unions are on the decline. Increasingly, Employers are using employment agreements to prevent workers from moving to another employer, especially in the tech industry. Monopolistic and oligopolistic employer power can only be countered by Unions and good government oversight.
Women get 6 months of EI (maternity leave). So to qualify for more EI, they have to work more hours. That is realty. On what basis do the judges feel that it unfair for them to have more EI than that?
Another reason to get rid of useless unions. They cost the companies money, which is then recouped by the company not hiring as many workers. So more workers laid off. – this is such bad news…
Great news. Employers should also top up maternity/paternity leave EI benefits as well. Another reason why we need unions, they fight for such things.
This happened to me in BC! I was let go from my government job after being back for 6 months from maternity leave. They approved me for EI but, then cut me off after less than 5 months because I didn’t have enough hours accumulated after I’d returned. The worst part is they only gave me 24 hours notice of my last payment. It was awful, I had no job or daycare.
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“This is because women are the only ones who can accumulate maternity benefits”
Not according to NDP/Liberals, and yes, the LPC will fight this in court. They can’t afford to have Canadians affording things.
This literally happened to me as a man when i returned from parental leave. Absolutely zero recourse.