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Labour board backs firing over CERB fraud
CERB
CERBWS Files
Western Standard News Services
Western Standard News Services
Published on:
05 Apr 2025, 12:00 pm
A federal labour board has upheld the dismissal of a government employee who fraudulently claimed thousands in pandemic relief payments, marking the first ruling of its kind.
Blacklock's Reporter says an adjudicator with the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board determined the employee knowingly disregarded eligibility rules.
“She knew the importance of correctly understanding eligibility criteria and sticking to it,” wrote adjudicator Nancy Rosenberg.
“However, in her own case, the grievor seemed to go out of her way to not clearly understand or obtain definitive information on the eligibility criteria and whether she met it. Her end goal seemed to be an attempt to maintain plausible deniability.”
Jacqueline Byrne, of St. John’s, who earned $64,000 annually as an Employment Insurance benefits officer with the Department of Employment, was fired after applying seven times for Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) payments, receiving a total of $14,000.
“She was still receiving her full department salary which made her ineligible,” Rosenberg wrote.
Byrne, a federal employee for 20 years, was responsible for ensuring accurate claim processing. She testified that she was confused by “conflicting information in the media.”
The Board rejected this argument and upheld her termination.
Rosenberg emphasized that Parliament designed CERB for specific hardship cases when it swiftly enacted the program to assist financially struggling Canadians.
“The temporary CERB program was put in place to ease the financial burden by quickly getting some money into the hands of impacted Canadians to cover their basic living needs, to help keep a roof overhead and food on the table,” she wrote.
At least 49 Department of Employment staff were fired for CERB fraud. A 2023 departmental briefing acknowledged widespread irregularities in the program, which exceeded its initial $24 billion estimate, ultimately costing $81.6 billion. Auditors have yet to fully account for the overspending.
Government figures show 190,254 people quit jobs to claim $2,000 monthly pandemic relief cheques.
Benefits were also paid to 1,522 prisoners, 704 claimants residing outside Canada, and 434 children under age 15, all of whom were ineligible under the Act.
The program also issued payments to 391 deceased individuals, including cases of attempted identity theft.
“As part of the intake control in place for the delivery of benefits, a verification of the individual’s identity through the Social Insurance Register was conducted,” stated the 2023 Briefing Binder.
“Applications were not processed in situations where the applicant’s death was registered.”
I want those responsible for giving the LONG list of ineligible recipients the money fined and made to pay back those funds to the taxpayers and I frankly don't care how the government collects it. Enough of this bullshit, that would end it.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-mark-carney-is-a-threat-to-national-unity/
“Preston Manning is the former leader of the Reform Party of Canada and a former leader of the Opposition.
Because of the vastness of Canada’s territory, the differing interests of its various regions, the abundance of competing economic and social interests, and the weakened state of democratic instruments for reconciling conflicting interests, national unity will be a perpetual challenge for whomever we choose to form our national government.
Recent polling by Pollara Strategic Insights shows a temporary decline in support for secession in Quebec but, paradoxically, support for the separatist Parti Québécois remains high. Were the PQ to win the next provincial election in Quebec as predicted, it has promised to hold another referendum on secession. And so the next federal government, no matter who forms it, will be faced yet again with a challenge to national unity on the Quebec front.
But whether politicians,...
Glad to see we are living in a Democratic Country where Unions support the Liberal, NDP party only! This is unconscionable and needs to be investigated as hate propaganda!
https://jeffreyr.substack.com/p/alberta-wants-out-an-open-letter
ALBERTA WANTS OUT! AN OPEN LETTER TO DANIELLE SMITH
Jeffrey Rath
Apr 05, 2025
Dear Premier Smith,
Many Albertans believe that we are at an inflection point in your Premiership. Many Albertans who voted for you are very concerned about the lack of principled leadership that has been on display as a result of the degree to which your government seems to take direction from all of the Jason Kenney-Trudeau Liberals that remain in your cabinet.
Justice Feasby of the Alberta Court of King's Bench recently ruled that 12 members of your Cabinet including your Attorney General engaged in a "plausible" misfeasance in public office when they joined Jason Kenney in deceitfully having Deena Hinshaw issue Cabinet Orders under the guise of Chief Medical Officer of Health Orders. All of these cabinet ministers as "Honourable Members" had an obligation to resign the day that the Ingram Decision Issued. Failing their resignations, you have an obligation as our "Right Honourable" Premier to remove all ...
