You are injured in a car accident and generally can’t work despite numerous attempts to pursue work before the minimum qualifying period, but you teach yoga and earn about $75 per week. Are you entitled to a disability pension under the Canada Pension Plan, R.S.C.? You could be.
“[4] Under subparagraph 42(2)(a)(i) of the Plan, a person has a “severe” disability if she is “incapable regularly of pursuing any substantially gainful occupation.” This Court has interpreted this requirement as meaning an inability to pursue “with consistent frequency” or “regularly” any “truly remunerative occupation”: Villani v. Canada (Attorney General), 2001 FCA 248 (CanLII), 2001 FCA 248, [2002] 1 F.C. 130 at paragraphs 38 and 42. This legal test for severity must be “applied with some degree of reference to the ‘real world’,” with a view to considering the claimant’s employability based on education, employment background and daily activities: Villani at paragraphs 38 and 39. Where there is evidence of a capacity to work, the claimant must establish she has tried to obtain and maintain employment but has been thwarted by her health problems: Canada (Attorney General) v. Ryall, 2008 FCA 164 (CanLII), 2008 FCA 164 at paragraph 5.”
See D’Errico v. Canada (Attorney General), (2014 FCA Stratas)