Jessica Moon, a teacher in the Toronto area, told CTV News Toronto on Thursday that she first suspected something was wrong during tax season. “I tried to log into my … student loan account and my Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) account and I couldn’t,” she said. “I found it very strange.” At the time, Moon says she was working as a substitute teacher and with Service Canada’s phone lines only open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., he couldn’t find time to call them. It wasn’t until late June – when school was out and Moon had more free time – that she was able to call Service Canada. She says she ended up waiting four hours in a phone line before speaking to someone who told her her SIN had been “flagged” and was then told she would have to visit a Service Canada location in person to get more details. So he made a trip to the Service Canada office at Yonge Street and Sheppard Avenue, where, again, he says the line was almost four hours long again. When she finally spoke to an attendant, she says she was told her SIN was flagged as “deceased.” “Me and the agent had a laugh about it, because I was sitting right there in front of them,” Moon said. “I was told they would flag it as an emergency and I would get a call very, very soon considering the seriousness of the matter.” Almost two months later, he has yet to see the problem resolved. During this time, she was unable to access her student loan payments, apply for further teaching positions, access her CRA account, or apply for Employment Insurance (EI). “I think the main issue right now is as a casual supply teacher, I have no income during the summer, so I rely on EI for the months of July and August, but I haven’t been able to apply this summer,” he said. “I’m still a younger teacher and so I’m looking for other positions or other possible job opportunities, but because I don’t have my sin, I haven’t been able to apply to any of those positions.” He says he called Service Canada several times, and even visited the office again in person. “This time, the queue was only three hours,” he said. But, each time, she says she’s been told by someone to expect a call soon. “I haven’t been contacted,” he said. “I don’t know if it somehow got lost.” “It was very, very disappointing.” When CTV News Toronto contacted Service Canada for comment, they said “an investigator has been assigned to look into Ms. Moon’s allegation.” “The investigator will be contacting Ms. Moon within the next 24 hours to discuss the details of her case. If an error is confirmed after the investigation is complete, Service Canada will then correct the client’s information on the Social Insurance Registry and notify Ms. Moon once it is finalized,” they said. Moon confirmed she heard from an investigator with Service Canada Thursday afternoon after CTV News Toronto reached out to the agency for a statement. “I feel so relieved to finally see some action being taken by the government after months of feeling overlooked by their silence and indifference to my situation,” she said. “While I still haven’t officially gotten my SIN back, it feels great to know that there was at least some form of progress in this frustrating process of reclaiming my life.”
