I suggest that maybe the felons shouldn't have broken the law in the first place. They had a choice to work hard and try to contribute to society. Somewhere along the line they made a choice that they wanted to break the law. There are rules that govern things when people break the law, and one of them certainly should not be that you now go into a special group of people who have a preferred position over a law-abiding group when it comes to collecting EI.
On February 1st, 2012. See this statement in context.