More than 1,000 Canadians take CRA to court over CERB payments — and some win
In late 2021, Tressa Mitchell was dealing with doctor’s appointments for her ailing mother when she got a call from the Canada Revenue Agency seeking information to verify her eligibility for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Mitchell, who has a lung condition, took time off work as a cashier in Saskatchewan. Like thousands of Canadians, she collected CERB for several months during the global public health crisis.
The rollout of the pandemic relief payments saw billions doled out to individuals and businesses on a pay-now-ask-questions-later basis.
But the verification process was far from perfect.
The government’s subsequent attempts to claw back pandemic funds from those it now deems ineligible set the stage for more than 1,000 battles in Federal Court between claimants and the Canada Revenue Agency.
A review of dozens of such cases show many involve self-represented litigants, in what one law professor described as “profoundly unequal” contests against the legal might of the federal government.
But some, against the odds, have won.
Self-represented litigants who won another review of their cases have included an Ontario hospitality worker who demonstrated his joblessness was related to the pandemic by showing he went through three interviews for an airport position just before COVID-19’s onset.
There was also a labourer and web designer who submitted a police report to prove that his tax and banking documents had been stolen from Union Station in Toronto, even managing to secure $800 in costs from the CRA.
A Quebec retiree, meanwhile, convinced a judge he had been doing odd jobs as a landscaper to make extra cash after the level of his pre-pandemic income was challenged by the
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