On Friday, bereaved parents across Canada won a big victory as the House of Commons voted in favour of Motion 110, introduced by Banff - Airdrie MP Blake Richards, that asks the Human Resources Committee to study the impact of pregnancy and infant loss on parents.  

The motion, that looked at one point that it would be defeated without the support of the Liberal government, received unanimous support from all parties.  Richards says it's a perfect example of democracy in action, and the reason he got into politics in the first place.

"This was an idea that one constituent brought to me as their MP and I immediately recognized that something needed to be done about that and we went and found Canadians across the country that agreed and supported it and they let their politicians know that this was something we needed to accomplish for Canadians.  There were literally thousands of parent advocates across the country who were working hard to gather support for this.  That's the reason this happened."

Richards says it was Sarah and Lee Cormier of Airdrie who started the action three years ago.  The Cormiers lost their four-month-old daughter Quinn in December 2014 from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).   Shortly after the Cormiers were told by Service Canada they had to pay back their parental benefits for the time after Quinn's death.  Richards says they came to him with their story and he couldn't believe this was actually happening.

"As I started to talk about this issue, I started to hear from people just like Sarah and Lee all across the country that had experienced the same thing and I knew there was something we had to do to fix this."

Motion 110 will now be referred to the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities for further study.  Richards says although the committee is not required to seek his input, he does expect to work with them and give them the names of people they should seek out as witnesses.

"This is a non-partisan motion.  This is something we're all going to work on together.  The Chair, who is a Liberal member, has asked that I provide them with some ideas on who they should hear from and, of course, with the people we've spoken to all across the country, we have a long list of names of people who are interested in telling their story." 

Richards says the committee must study the issue and report back it's findings within six months.  The Chair of the committee says they expect to plan for the study before the Commons breaks for the summer.  The government will be required to respond to the committee's findings within a few months. 

Richards says the government always moves slowly but he is very pleased that Motion 110 is now passed and the wheels are turning.

"This result is only the first step in a long process to actually delivering in the level of support and compassion shown by the government to grieving parents.  The hard work and dedication of thousands of Canadians made this possible."  

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