This Act inserts a new Criminal Code offence (section 423.2) that targets conduct intended to provoke fear to stop someone from obtaining health services, to intimidate health professionals, or to impede those who assist them; it also criminalizes intentional obstruction or interference with lawful access to places where health services are provided, subject to a narrow defence for people attending only to obtain or communicate information. The new offence is punishable as an indictable offence (up to 10 years) or as a summary offence, and the Act adds these offences to lists used for bail and sentencing considerations.
On the labour side, the Act restructures federally regulated leave entitlements: it repeals the existing personal leave provision, establishes earned paid medical leave of up to 10 days per year with specific accrual and carry‑forward rules, creates longer bereavement leave for the death of a child and a new leave following a stillbirth, and gives the Governor in Council power to adapt the paid‑leave rules for particular employee classes. Employers and compliance teams for federally regulated workplaces will need to update payroll, records and return‑to‑work policies to reflect the new entitlements and certification rules.
At a Glance
What It Does
Creates two Criminal Code offences: intimidation intended to impede access to health services and intentional obstruction of lawful access to health‑service locations, with penalties up to 10 years; expands bail and sentencing considerations to recognize offences against health‑service providers and impediments to patients. Amends the Canada Labour Code to replace the previous personal‑leave framework with an earned, paid medical leave of up to 10 days per year, extends bereavement leave for child death, and establishes an eight‑week stillbirth leave.
Who It Affects
Health‑service providers, patients and anyone involved in demonstrations or activities near clinics or hospitals (criminal law); federally regulated employers and their employees (airlines, banks, telecoms, federally regulated transportation and Crown corporations) for the labour provisions; labour compliance officers, payroll teams and HR managers responsible for recordkeeping and certification requirements.
Why It Matters
For justice and public‑health officials it creates a federal enforcement tool aimed at keeping clinics and hospitals accessible. For federally regulated workplaces the bill introduces mandatory paid medical leave accrual and specific bereavement/stillbirth leaves that change payroll liabilities and documentation practices and allow regulatory carve‑outs by order‑in‑council.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The Criminal Code changes create a focused federal offence that criminalizes conduct done with the specific intent to provoke fear in order to stop someone from getting health services, to intimidate health professionals, or to impede those who assist them. The statute also criminalizes intentionally obstructing or interfering with someone’s lawful access to a location where a health professional provides services.
The obstruction offence contains a built‑in defence: a person is not guilty solely for attending or approaching such a place if they were there only to obtain or to communicate information. The provision defines “health professional” by reference to provincial authorization to provide health services.
The Act makes the new intimidation provision a designated offence for certain procedural regimes and explicitly lists it among offences relevant to pretrial release (bail) decisions and sentencing. Courts must consider, as aggravating factors, when an offence was committed against someone while they were providing health services or when the offence had the practical effect of impeding another person’s access to health services.
That affects bail applications and can increase sentences where those elements are proved.On employment, the law replaces the previous personal‑leave structure in the Canada Labour Code with a new scheme for paid medical leave: employees earn a slice of paid medical leave early in employment (three paid days after 30 days, then one additional paid day per month after 60 days, up to 10 days total), with a monthly accrual rhythm thereafter up to the same annual ceiling. Unused paid medical days carry forward to the next year but reduce the number of days that can be earned in that following year by the carried‑forward amount.
Employers may require medical certificates in specific circumstances and may set a minimum one‑day increment for each period of paid medical leave taken.The Act also expands bereavement entitlements: ordinary bereavement leave for immediate family members is clarified and limited to a 10‑day period within six weeks of the death; the death of a child (including a child of a spouse or partner) triggers an eight‑week leave window that can be taken within 12 weeks; stillbirth is carved out as an eight‑week leave with a statutory definition (on or after 20 weeks’ gestation or 500 g). Finally, the Governor in Council may make regulations defining terms and adapting the paid‑leave scheme for specific classes of employees if the rules would otherwise be unreasonable in light of particular work practices.
The Five Things You Need to Know
Section 423.2 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to provoke fear to stop someone obtaining health services, intimidate a health professional, or impede an assistant; conviction risks up to 10 years’ imprisonment on indictment.
Subsection 423.2(2) criminalizes intentionally obstructing or interfering with lawful access to places providing health services but provides a defence for those attending only to obtain or communicate information.
The Act adds the new intimidation offence to lists used in bail (section 515) and designates offences that may justify detention or heightened conditions; it also adds ‘offence against a person providing health services’ and ‘offence that impeded access’ as sentencing aggravating factors (paragraph 718.2(a)).
Under the Canada Labour Code, employees earn three paid medical days after 30 days’ employment and begin earning an additional one paid day per month after 60 days, up to a maximum of 10 paid days per calendar year.
Unused paid medical days carry forward to the next year but reduce by the carried‑forward amount the maximum number of days that an employee can earn that following calendar year.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
Every bill we cover gets an analysis of its key sections.
New Criminal offence: intimidation and obstruction related to health services (s. 423.2)
These provisions add section 423.2 to the Criminal Code. Subsection (1) targets conduct intended to provoke fear to impede a patient, a health professional, or an assistant; subsection (2) targets intentional obstruction or interference with lawful access to health‑service locations. The statute sets out punishments (indictable up to 10 years or summary) and includes a narrowly drawn defence for persons attending only to obtain or communicate information. Practically, prosecutors will need to prove specific intent to provoke fear for subsection (1) and lack of lawful authority and intent for subsection (2).
Designation for investigative and asset‑forfeiture regimes
The Act amends the definition of ‘secondary designated offence’ to include the new intimidation provision. That technical change means certain investigative and procedural tools tied to designated offences—such as authorizing specific court orders—can now be applied where the new offence is charged. Compliance teams working with law enforcement should note this expands the set of offences that attract special prosecutorial mechanisms.
Bail and sentencing: consideration of offences that impede health services
The bill inserts the new intimidation offence into sections of the Criminal Code governing judicial interim release and pretrial detention, and it revises paragraph 718.2(a) to add two aggravating factors: when an offence was committed against someone providing health services (including personal care services) and when an offence had the practical effect of impeding access to health services. These are procedural and mitigatory levers: judges deciding bail and sentencing must take these elements into account, potentially tightening release conditions and increasing sentences where the elements are established.
Repeal of prior personal‑leave clause and expanded bereavement and stillbirth leave
The Act repeals paragraph 206.6(1)(a), removing the older personal‑leave provision, and replaces subsection 210(1) to expand leave on death of family members. It creates a 10‑day leave window for immediate‑family deaths and an eight‑week entitlement specifically for the death of a child (and for the death of a spouse/partner’s child). It also adds an eight‑week leave following a stillbirth with a statutory definition tied to fetal age or weight (20 weeks or 500 g). Employers must accommodate these longer and explicitly defined leaves for federally regulated employees.
Paid medical leave accrual, pay, certification and regulatory flexibility
This section establishes an earned paid medical‑leave regime: initial entitlement accrues quickly (three days after 30 days, then monthly accrual after 60 days) to a 10‑day cap; paid days are paid at the employee’s regular rate and may be carried forward, with carried days reducing the next year’s earning potential. Employers may require medical certificates in limited circumstances (paid leave of five consecutive days or unpaid leave of three days or more) and may set minimum one‑day increments for leave periods. The Governor in Council can make regulations to define terms and modify these rules for specific classes of employees where applying them as written would be unreasonable.
Coming into force and phased implementation
The criminal amendments (sections 1–5) come into force 30 days after royal assent. The Labour Code amendments (sections 6 and 7) and the provision inserting stillbirth leave (section 6.1) come into force on days fixed by order of the Governor in Council. That sequencing means criminal provisions take effect promptly, while labour provisions may be delayed pending regulatory or administrative preparation.
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Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Patients and people seeking health services — the criminal offences create a federal remedy against intimidation and obstruction that can deter conduct that blocks access to clinics and hospitals.
- Health professionals and support staff — the law recognizes offences against them and factors those offences into bail and sentencing, potentially increasing legal protection while they perform duties.
- Federally regulated employees who need time off for medical reasons — the new paid medical‑leave entitlement provides up to 10 paid days a year with early accrual, improving short‑term income protection.
- Bereaved parents and families — extended leave for the death of a child and a defined stillbirth leave give federally regulated employees longer statutory time off with job protection.
Who Bears the Cost
- Organizers and participants in demonstrations near health facilities — peaceful protesters will need to avoid conduct that could be characterized as intending to provoke fear or intentionally obstruct access, exposure to criminal charges increases legal risk.
- Federally regulated employers (banks, airlines, telecoms, Crown corporations) — they must budget for additional paid leave, update payroll systems to handle accrual and carry‑forward rules, and manage certificate and return‑to‑work processes.
- Human resources and payroll administrators — new accrual mechanics (initial 30/60‑day thresholds, monthly accrual, carry‑forward reducing next‑year accrual) increase recordkeeping complexity and compliance workload.
- Federal enforcement and prosecution services — investigating intent to provoke fear and prosecuting obstruction cases near health sites will demand resources and procedural clarity, especially where protests intersect with public‑order concerns.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The Act confronts a classic policy trade‑off: it strengthens legal protection for access to health services and for bereaved or ill employees, but doing so tightens criminal liability around protest and places new administrative and financial burdens on federally regulated employers; the law must therefore reconcile protecting vulnerable health‑service access and employee wellbeing with preserving legitimate expression and avoiding disproportionate compliance costs.
Several implementation and interpretive questions could complicate enforcement and compliance. On the criminal side, proving the subjective element—intent to provoke fear to impede access—will often hinge on contextual facts (words, conduct, signage, prior conduct), creating evidentiary challenges.
The narrow defence for attending only to obtain or communicate information leaves room for litigation about when speech or peaceful assembly crosses into intimidation or obstruction; courts will need to balance Charter protections for expression and assembly against the statute’s access protections. The definition of ‘health professional’ refers to provincial authorization, which may produce variable coverage across provinces and create interjurisdictional inconsistencies in how the federal offence is applied.
On the labour side, replacing the prior personal‑leave regime with an earned, paid medical‑leave system raises trade‑offs. The 10‑day annual ceiling and the carry‑forward rule (which reduces next year’s accrual by the carried amount) limit long‑term accumulation and can produce odd payroll math that employers must track.
The employer’s ability to demand medical certificates after five consecutive paid days or three unpaid days triggers privacy and administrative concerns; employers will need procedures that respect medical confidentiality while meeting verification needs. Finally, the Governor in Council’s power to modify leave rules for classes of employees creates flexibility but also the risk of uneven application across sectors if used frequently.
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