Vivian Ketchum applied for emergency aid during the first wave of the pandemic when she was forced to isolate after being a close contact of someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
As someone who is already in a financially precarious spot, Ketchum found taking time off from her low-paying job doing phone surveys completely devastated her situation.
The 57-year-old residential school survivor thought the Canada Emergency Response Benefit could be her financial life raft.
“I thought the federal government was being gracious in giving out the CERB,” she said in a recent interview from her Winnipeg apartment. “But they are unforgiving and relentless in wanting that money back.”
Ketchum was one of 441,599 aid recipients who in late 2020 received a letter from the Canada Revenue Agency questioning their eligibility and warning they may owe back some of the payments.
Number-crunching by The Canadian Press about where the letters went suggest a disproportionate number landed in postal codes home to First Nations, including in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
Two areas of northern Manitoba stand out from the data, with more than half the average number of CERB recipients during each of the benefits’ pay periods receiving what the CRA called “educational letters.”
The forward sortation areas, meaning the first three digits of a postal code, are home to two of the largest Indigenous communities in the province. The local MP notes there are also high rates of poverty.
Data from the CRA show the average personal income in the R0B postal code is just over $11,900, below the national average of just over $51,000. Nearly 5,000 of the letters landed in this area.
New Democrat Niki Ashton, who represents the region in the House of Commons, said her office has received calls from residents worried about having to repay the CERB.
“This whole issue has caused a lot of anxiety and worry for people in our communities,” Ashton said. “But it really speaks to the lack of, well, frankly, the lack of fairness from the federal government that is extending significant resources and tracking folks down in one of the poorest parts of Canada.”
Areas with large numbers of CERB recipients, including in and around the Greater Toronto Area, showed smaller shares of letters in the data obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.
The CRA said no one has been forced to repay any of the aid, no repayment deadlines have been set and “no recovery or collection efforts have been made with respect to any group, including Indigenous applicants.”
That could soon change. Work is moving ahead this year to verify CERB recipients’ eligibility as the government always promised would happen, with efforts continuing over the next few years. Thousands more letters have also been sent to recipients of the now-defunct program.
Just under 8.9 million Canadians used the $500-a-week emergency benefit the government set up quickly at the onset of the pandemic as millions of workers saw their incomes slashed.
Eligibility rules were ultimately set to require someone to have earned at least $5,000 in the 12 months prior to applying, something the government noted became easier to verify once tax filings rolled in.
Part of the issue with letters going to Indigenous communities is that tax filing rates are lower among Indigenous families.
The CRA’s website encourages Indigenous aid recipients to file their 2019 and 2020 tax returns as a way of proving eligibility, even though the deadlines for those have long passed.
The agency suggested another issue could be that some applicants have tax-exempt income because it is earned on-reserve under a specific section of the Indian Act.
“If an individual had tax-exempt employment or self-employment income, it’s possible that the CRA did not have the necessary income information on file to confirm their eligibility for the CERB,” the agency said in response to questions from The Canadian Press.
The agency added that it has an email for specific questions about COVID-19 workplace restrictions and the impact on Indigenous income-tax exemption.
Ketchum struggled to understand the CRA website and what, if any, options for leniency there were. She asked a tax preparer for help, but was told she would have to pay back the money.
Indigenous workers who met the CERB’s earnings requirement were more likely than their non-Indigenous counterparts to receive the CERB, according to Statistics Canada research.
Among First Nations workers, the rate was 41.5 per cent, for Inuit 40.3 per cent, and 36.2 per cent for Métis. The corresponding percentage for non-Indigenous workers was 33.9 per cent.
The reason they were more likely to receive CERB had to do with their disproportionate ranks in low-wage jobs that were hit hardest during the pandemic amid rounds of lockdowns and cuts in hours, and which still have not rebounded to pre-pandemic levels despite the top-line figures.
Ketchum shakes her head at the situation. She relies on getting money back during tax season to help pay her bills, but instead sold her condominium and took out $4,000 in risky payday loans to survive the pandemic.
She said she can barely afford to eat and can’t afford needed dental work.
“CRA took my teeth, my rent, my food,” Ketchum said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2022.
— With files from Erika Ibrahim in Ottawa.
Jordan Press, Kelly Geraldine Malone and Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press
Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
