- Parties: The applicant was Charles Fentum. The respondent was the Attorney General of Canada.

- Subject Matter: The applicant applied for the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) for 27 two-week periods from Sept. 27, 2020 to Oct. 9, 2021. At the first-level review, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) found the applicant ineligible for the CRB as he had not earned at least $5,000 (before taxes) of employment or net self-employment income in 2019 or in 2020 or in the 12 months before the date of his first application. At the second-level review, a CRA officer found the applicant ineligible for the CRB because he was not working for reasons unrelated to COVID-19 and did not have a 50-percent reduction in his average weekly income compared to the previous year due to COVID-19. The applicant sought judicial review.

- Ruling: The court ruled in the applicant’s favour, allowed the judicial review application, and referred the matter back for redetermination by a different decision-maker. The court found the CRA officer’s conclusion that the applicant was not working for reasons unrelated to COVID-19 unintelligible. The court held that the officer made an unjustifiable leap by concluding that the applicant’s entire unemployed period from 2019 to August 2021 was for reasons unrelated to COVID-19.

- Date: The hearing was set on May 31, 2023. The court released its decision on June 16, 2023.

- Venue: This was a federal case before the Federal Court.

- Amount: The court made no costs order.