Date: 20090925
Docket: A-54-09
Citation: 2009 FCA
277
CORAM: NOËL J.A.
NADON J.A.
PELLETIER J.A.
BETWEEN:
THE
ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA
Applicant
and
MOHANATHAS
VAIRAMUTHU
Respondent
Heard at Montreal, Québec,
on September 24, 2009.
Judgment delivered at Ottawa, Ontario,
on September 25, 2009.
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT BY: PELLETIER
J.A.
CONCURRED
IN BY: NOËL
J.A.
NADON J.A.
Date: 20090925
Docket: A-54-09
Citation: 2009 FCA 277
CORAM: NOËL
J.A.
NADON J.A.
PELLETIER
J.A.
BETWEEN:
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA
Applicant
and
MOHANATHAS VAIRAMUTHU
Respondent
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
PELLETIER J.A.
[1]
The respondent voluntarily left his employment
to accompany his wife to India
to seek treatment for infertility. Two previous attempts at treatment in the Montreal area had not been successful. The
respondent and his wife heard of a clinic in India and decided to seek treatment there.
[2]
The decision to seek treatment abroad is
certainly one which the respondent and his wife were entitled to make. Given
the importance of children in the respondent’s culture, it may well have been
good cause for the respondent to have voluntarily left his employment but it is
not just cause. Given that the condition being treated is not a threat to life
or to health, and given the absence of evidence that no adequate alternate
treatment was available in the Montreal area, the decision to seek treatment abroad was not just cause
within the meaning of section 30 of the Employment Insurance Act , S.C.
1996 c. 23. In particular, it did not meet the standard set in paragraph
29(c)(v) of the Act.
[3]
The Umpire erred in law in disturbing the Board
of Referees’ decision. As a result, I would allow the application for judicial
review, I would set aside the decision of the Umpire and I would remit the
matter to the Umpire in Chief or his designate for redetermination on the basis
that the respondent was not justified in voluntarily leaving his employment to
seek treatment abroad for a condition for which treatment was available
locally.
"J.D.
Denis Pelletier"
“I
agree.
Marc Noël J.A.”
“I
agree.
M. Nadon J.A.”
FEDERAL COURT OF APPEAL
NAMES OF COUNSEL AND SOLICITORS OF RECORD
DOCKET: A-54-09
STYLE OF CAUSE: THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA and MOHANATHAS VAIRAMUTHU
PLACE OF HEARING: MONTREAL,
QUÉBEC
DATE OF HEARING: SEPTEMBER 24, 2009
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT BY: PELLETIER J.A.
CONCURRED IN BY: NOËL J.A.
NADON
J.A.
DATED: SEPTEMBER 25, 2009
APPEARANCES:
|
NICHOLAS R. BANKS
PAULINE LEROUX
|
FOR THE APPLICANT
|
|
MOHANATHAS VAIRAMUTHU
|
FOR THE RESPONDENT, ON HIS OWN BEHALF
|
SOLICITORS
OF RECORD:
|
JOHN H. SIMS, Q.C.
DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA
|
OTTAWA, ONTARIO
|
|
MOHANATHAS VAIRAMUTHU
|
MONTREAL, QUÉBEC
|
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