Parental Leave Without Pay (a) Where an employee has or will have the actual care and custody of a new- born child (including the new-born child of a common-law spouse), the employee shall, upon request, be granted parental leave without pay for a single period of up to thirty-seven (37) consecutive weeks in the fifty-two (52) week period beginning on the day on which the child is born or the day on which the child comes into the employee’s care. (b) Where an employee commences legal proceedings under the laws of a province to adopt a child or obtains an order under the laws of a province for the adoption of a child, the employee shall, upon request, be granted parental leave without pay for a single period of up to thirty-seven (37) consecutive weeks in the fifty-two (52) week period beginning on the day on which the child comes into the employee’s care. (c) Notwithstanding paragraphs (a) and (b): (i) where the employee’s child is hospitalized within the period defined in the above paragraphs, and the employee has not yet proceeded on parental leave without pay, or (ii) where the employee has proceeded on parental leave without pay and then returns to work for all or part of the period during which his or her child is hospitalized, the period of parental leave without pay specified in the original leave request may be extended by a period equal to that portion of the period of the child’s hospitalization during which the employee was not on parental leave. However, the extension shall end not later than one hundred and four (104) weeks after the day on which the child comes into the employee’s care. (d) An employee who intends to request parental leave without pay shall notify the Employer at least four (4) weeks in advance of the expected date of birth of the employee’s child (including the child of a common-law spouse), or the date the child is expected to come into the employee’s care pursuant to paragraphs (a) and (b). (e) The Employer may, (i) defer the commencement of parental leave without pay at the request of the employee; (ii) grant the employee parental leave without pay with less than four