The federal government laid out its legislative agenda for the coming year in yesterday's Speech from the Throne. Of interest is the following promise directed at victims of crime:

Our Government will also offer tangible support to innocent victims of crime and their families. It will give families of murder victims access to special benefits under Employment Insurance. It will introduce legislation to give employees of federally regulated industries the right to unpaid leave if they or members of their families are victimized by crime. And our Government will introduce legislation to make the victim surcharge mandatory, to better fund victim services.

For more on this topic, see this post I wrote in May 2008 about a private members bill that had been introduced by a NDP MLA in BC that would have amended the BC Employment Standards Act to provide for an unpaid leave to employees in provincially regulated operations who are victims of crime.