By Stephanie Cousineau and Kim Darling. Last week, New Zealand made headlines when Parliament unanimously passed the Miscarriage Bereavement Bill, giving mothers and their partners three days’ bereavement leave after pregnancy ends from miscarriage or stillbirth. Previously, paid leave was available in New Zealand for a stillbirth (i.e., after 20 weeks’ gestation) – now, it […]
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New Zealand’s Miscarriage Bereavement Bill is a leap forward—but maybe not how you think? How Canada Compares
Recap: Virtual Employer Forum – The What, Why and How of Workplace Policies
For our February Employer Forum, we turned our attention to workplace policies: What are they, why do you need them, and how should you put them into place? KEL lawyers Fiona McFarlane and Stephanie Cousineau led the discussion, which included a review of the relevant legislation and certain key common law principles, and an introduction […]

Can your Employer Call the Shot? The Question of Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccines and the Workplace
By Stephanie Cousineau and Kim Darling. In December 2020, the first person in Canada received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. So began Stage 1 of the vaccine rollout, during which the government expects over 5 million people will be vaccinated. Another 12 million are expected to get their shots during Stage 2 (between […]

Will Employers Be Able to Require COVID-19 Vaccination? (Stephanie Cousineau Quoted in Times Colonist)
Mandatory vaccination unlikely for workplaces; focus will be on education By Roxanne Egan-Elliott, Times Colonist, December 10, 2020 Once a COVID-19 vaccine is available, will employers be able to require that employees be immunized? Find out what Kent Employment Law’s Stephanie Cousineau had to say about mandatory vaccination in today’s Times Colonist article by Roxanne […]

Privilege: What Happens if Your Plus-One Joins the Conversation?
By Stephanie Cousineau, lawyer. How often in life do you feel like you’re having a conversation that’s really “in the vault”? Most of us have been burned by having our secrets leaked by friends and used against us, and maybe it’s too much to expect that our social connections will keep everything on the down-low. […]