I was doing contract work for a U.S. company from 2020-2021 when the tech industry got pretty hot. After getting some good offers I took a full-time employment offer through an "employer of record" (remote.com) from the company I had been contracting for, which included stock options (private equity) and a signing bonus (to be paid back if I quit within a year).

After switching to employment through remote.com, I never received the pay from my last month of work as a contractor, but didn't want to quit and have to pay back the bonus. I also never received information about the stock options (again, U.S. company, private equity) which meant I couldn't exercise if I wanted to.

After a year I'd had enough and told them I'd do part-time work if they want to move me to a different contract (remote.com does management for independent contractors also), and was told they'd get some information together for an offer. In the meantime I burned through my vacation days and then started working part-time (a little less than half-time) by submitting "unpaid time off" in Remote for the days I wasn't working.

Yesterday I got an email that they were terminating my employment without cause, effective Oct 31. Then today via email I was told they couldn't terminate employment on their end, and needed me to submit the resignation request, which I did. I did receive a contract offer (as a self-employed contractor) from a child company of the company I was working for, but it's a pretty low offer which I don't intend to accept unless material terms change.

Since I submitted the resignation, I'm thinking I might not be eligible for EI but here is my case:

• I never received information for stock options which were initially promised with the regular employment offer
• I was told that I was being "terminated without cause", and then told that they couldn't process that on their end. I figured if I didn't accept they could stop approving my unpaid time off requests and then fire me with cause (I've already made travel plans which would prevent me from working those days)
• The U.S. company I was working with didn't pay me for a month of work, after a year (though that may be considered independent of my contract with remote.com, my official Canadian employer)

Does this seem like it's enough that it would be worth applying anyway?