“Achingly Close”: A tale of policy intransigence, hubris and a half hour of paid work
There is a Canadian woman named Amanda Coscarelli who should be a household name. She has singlehandedly demonstrated the excruciating unfairness of an important element in the design of the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB). But her ultimate rewards were equal measures of frustration, ineligibility and hardship. I don’t know her personally and I could not find her online so I only know Amanda through a Federal Court decision named Coscarelli v. Canada (Attorney General) from December 1, 2022 - Mr. Justice Diner presiding. You can read it here: https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/522550/index.do Her case is public. She represented herself while the Canadian Government was represented by the Attorney General of Canada. And she lost. The bottom line in the case is that Amanda applied for $14,000 in Canada Recovery Benefits (CRB) in good…