Update:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canadians defrauding the Canada Emergency Repsonse Benefit (CERB) will be "punished," after a draft bill surfaced indicating that people defrauding CERB could be fined or face jail time.
"We always knew from the beginning that there would be mistakes, and indeed, there would be a small number of fraudsters who would try to take advantage of it," "Now, there may be a number of people who mistakenly took both the CERB and the wage subsidy, because they weren't sure what they were going to do, or they were really worried and they just took everything - those people will simply have to pay back the one they shouldn't have been taking, and we're not looking at punishing people who made honest mistakes."
"We will make sure that we are punishing people who try to take advantage of this situation, and we've put measures in place that will allow us to go after the deliberate fraudsters who are trying to game the system for criminal benefits,"
Trudeau says those who made an "honest mistake" by receiving CERB and Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy in error won't be punished.
"There may be a number of people who mistakenly took both the CERB and the wage subsidy, because they weren't sure what they were going to do, or they were really worried and they just took everything - those people will simply have to pay back the one they shouldn't have been taking, and we're not looking at punishing people who made honest mistakes," he said.
Original story:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is slated to update Canadians on the COVID-19 situation at 11:00 a.m.
Village Media will carry the livestream, so stay tuned.
