Mr. Speaker, I would like to share a story with my colleague. It is the story of Jean‑Claude Martin and Gaétane Cyr, both residents of Baie‑des‑Chaleurs. I represented them as their legal aid lawyer. When they started living together, they filed a tax return as a couple. To get their guaranteed income supplement, they simply called and explained their situation to a public servant, without filling in any forms, since none had been sent to them.
A few years later, the federal government suddenly woke up and decided to send my two low-income clients a letter demanding $38,000. It is not hard to imagine the stress they were under. We disputed this demand and asked the government to forgive the debt since it had been notified of the situation previously. We took the matter all the way to Federal Court and lost. At the time, I asked Minister Duclos to step in and cancel the debt. That never happened.
How can we be sure that no double standard will creep in and that the people who cheated the government, or at best behaved badly, will also have to face legal proceedings in this case?