From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   PAT CARNEY - Why does Revenue Canada get away with breaching my privacy? CRA   
   SOTW    
      
   PAT CARNEY   
   Special to The Globe and Mail   
   Published Friday, Dec. 12 2014, 10:11 AM EST   
   Last updated Friday, Dec. 12 2014, 10:15 AM EST   
      
   Pat Carney is an author and former Conservative Cabinet Minister, Senator and   
   MP who lives on Saturna Island, B.C.   
      
   The Canada Revenue Agency apparently thinks it has a "Get Out Of Jail" card to   
   play when it comes to breaking the law. Twice in the last six months, CRA   
   agents have admitted to me that Canada's tax collector agency has broken   
   Canada's privacy laws.   
      
   I am one of the Canadians who received a registered letter this month from CRA   
   Commissioner Andrew Treusch stating he "regrets to inform" me that my personal   
   tax information was "accidentally mailed to the CBC through human error" while   
   preparing an    
   Access to Information Request.   
      
   Ironically, the day I received the letter was also the deadline for a CRA   
   demand that I must pay back taxes on 2013 income for failure to supply the CRA   
   with the very information that the CRA's boss admits was "accidentally mailed"   
   to the CBC.   
      
   I did not make this up. I am just trying to figure it out.   
      
   The Commissioner wrote that he is launching an internal investigation into   
   this "privacy breach", adding "Regrettably, the CBC chose to publicly disclose   
   some of the names which only they had received."   
      
   So, you see, it is all the CBC's fault. If "it" hadn't published the names,   
   Canadians wouldn't know the tax collection agency broke the law by releasing   
   the names, address, and the private tax information of law-abiding citizens.   
      
   When I phoned the CRA call-back number in Ottawa to clarify why I am being   
   penalized for allegedly failing to file information the CRA admitted it had -   
   I mean, someone GAVE that specific information to the CBC - CRA agent 123 456   
   XYZ (not her real    
   identity code) said the CRA had now found my missing documents "in its   
   inventory" and agreed that releasing the information was "illegal". They would   
   explain it all in a letter via standard mail, she told me.   
      
   "The agency doesn't use e-mail because of the danger of disclosure," she   
   explained.   
      
   I wondered why anyone would bother hacking the CRA's files when the agency's   
   employees give it away to the media? But I digress.   
      
   It was the second time this year that a CRA agent admitted to performing an   
   illegal action. In June, I received a phone call from a tax official in the   
   Victoria tax centre threatening the equivalent of public stoning if I didn't   
   give the agency some    
   highly personal information including contract terms, bank account and payment   
   information regarding a business associate.   
      
   After establishing that I was not the party under investigation, I told the   
   agent politely that I would be breaking the privacy laws if I disclosed the   
   information requested by the CRA. "Aren't you aware of that?" I asked.   
      
   "Oh yes" she said. "You are absolutely right. But if you don't give us the   
   information we request we can send you a legal document forcing you to turn it   
   over to us," she said. "Most people simply give it when we ask for it." So   
   much for Canada's privacy    
   laws.   
      
   I told her that I would release the information when I received the legal   
   document, which I did. I never heard anything further, from the business   
   associate or the CRA.   
      
   Asked about the "massive privacy breach" at the CRA by NDP MP Peter Julian,   
   National Revenue Minister Kerry-Lynne Findlay told the House of Commons that   
   "this privacy breach" - she did not confess to breaking the law - was   
   "extremely serious and    
   completely unacceptable." She said she has notified the Privacy Commissioner.   
      
   Ms. Findlay did not apologize to the Canadians whose confidential tax   
   information was released to the media, where it will remain on file. She did   
   not even say she was sorry.   
      
   What she should have done was take responsibility for an illegal act and   
   resign.   
      
   She didn't do that either.   
      
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