Not only of prominent Canadians, mind you, but mostly prominent and/or wealthy ones. CBC is reporting that it has been leaked a document containing “confidential” tax information of a number of prominent Canadians including Jean Chrétien and fellow tax lawyer (and prominent Olympics figure) Richard Pound. The 18-page spreadsheet contains confidential tax records and is related to donations of cultural property made to Canadian galleries and museums.
The CBC story quotes a recent Toronto Star piece stating that CRA has made 14 separate leaks or breaches of confidential tax information between April 1 and July 31 of this year. As I have discussed before, your data’s safety and confidentiality in CRA’s hands is highly questionable, securing data in their hands appears impossible, and remedies for injury in the event of a breach or leak are difficult even if you manage to discover it.