Husband of Liberal MP Must Repay Improperly Claimed Pandemic Relief Cheques

The husband of Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner must return payments received from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) program, records show. In a filing with the Ethics Commissioner, Ms. Hepfner, the MP for Hamilton Mountain, Ont., disclosed her husband Michael Aitkens, a local CBC cameraman, has been asked to repay benefits, as reported by Blacklock’s Reporter. The amount he must repay has not been released. During the pandemic, CBC implemented a policy where most of its employees were working from home with full pay. Notably, less than 20 percent of CBC employees, mainly those in essential operations such as news presentation and news gathering, were required to work from the office....