The Quebec Court recently ruled that it is unconstitutional to limit a child's legal affiliation to one or two parents. It thus grants tri-parent or multiparent families the same legal rights as other families.
Although this ruling may be a relief for parents with non-traditional family units, we anticipate that it may create some issues in the workplace since employment legislation has not yet evolved to the same extent.
Employee benefits
Workplace benefit plans (e.g., extended health insurance, dependent coverage) often limit dependents to the children of two parents. Considering the legal vagueness at this level, employers may face cost or eligibility conflicts when employees seek to include other co-parents in their benefit plans or share benefits between households with various children.
Leaves: family and other
Employers are legally required to provide their employees with various family leaves, such as parental leave and family responsibility leave. However, these leaves have typically been based on the idea of two legal parents, including in the event of an adoption.
Under Quebec law, employees are entitled to 10 days off per year to fulfill obligations related to the care, health or education of his or her child or spouse's child, or the health of a "relative". The term "relative" is defined as (in addition to the employee's spouse) the child, father, mother, or one of the parents, brother, sister and grandparents of the employee or the employee's spouse as well as those persons' spouses, their children and their children's spouses. However, the law does not define the terms "spouse", "child" or "child of the employee's spouse". As a result, employers may be faced with a number of uncertainties. Indeed, in the absence of legal precedent or legislative clarity, employers may not know whether granting leave to a third parent, or multiple family leaves to the same parent for several "relatives", is legally required.
Finally, bereavement or caregiver leave also requires a family relationship. Multi-parent families often include non-marital co-parents or polyamorous partnerships, neither of which is contemplated in current leave laws. Some employers may therefore refuse to authorize such a leave on the basis of a literal interpretation of the law, while others will choose to grant a leave as an accommodation measure.
In any case, as things stand, this right would certainly be applied inconsistently and ambiguously across the province. This legal grey area could expose employers to challenges from employees whose requests have been rejected, or from colleagues claiming unequal workloads due to an abuse of family leaves.
What to expect
For the time being, employers in Quebec will be operating in a legal vacuum when it comes to three or multi-parent families. Until legislative provisions are formally revised, situations with employees will have to be studied on a case-by-case basis, trying to strike a balance between legal rights, inclusiveness, and administrative capacity.
The foregoing provides only an overview and does not constitute legal advice. Readers are cautioned against making any decisions based on this material alone. Rather, specific legal advice should be obtained.
© McMillan LLP 2025
