Canada’s Tax Agency Handed Reporters Details on Celebrities’ Finances and Donations
Entertainment // Government (Foreign) // Ottawa, Canada
A spreadsheet describing the private lives of hundreds of Canadians — many of them rich and famous — was sent to CBC News by the Canada Revenue Agency in a major privacy breach.
“The unredacted list, delivered to CBC in digital format, was an erroneous response to a request for unrelated records under the Access to Information Act,” the news organization reports.
The 18 pages include information on donations made between 2008 and 2013 by such Canadian luminaries as author Margaret Atwood. "Letting confidential figures slip that way, is very sloppy … I'm sure they didn't do it on purpose," Atwood told CBC.
The list, for example, outlines the donations these individuals have made to Canadian galleries and museums, and includes the value the government attached to the donations for the purpose of claiming a charitable tax break.
The donated artifacts include manuscript collections from well-known writers, photographs, sculptures, oil paintings, and cels from animated films -- many bequeathed by the artists themselves.
CBC said it is withholding most details from the list, aside from the names of some of the people cited, out of respect for privacy.
Michel Drapeau, an Ottawa lawyer specializing in privacy law, called the breach "very, very serious," among the worst he has seen in 30 years.
"I don't remember a case when CRA lost control over such information," he said.
The names on the list include:
- Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
- Grocery magnate Frank Sobey.
- Cartoonist Lynn Johnston.
- Pollster Allan Gregg.
- Financier Stephen Bronfman.
- Former CBC executive Richard Stursberg.
- Olympics chief Richard Pound.
- Historian John English.
- Financier Eric Sprott.
- Author Tim Wynne-Jones.
- Author Spider Robinson.
- Photographer Edward Burtynsky.
- Broadcaster Dini Petty.
- Artist Christopher Pratt.
- Filmmaker Robert Lantos.
- Artist Charles Pachter.
- Sculptor Sorel Etrog.
- Former judge Louise Arbour.
- Artist David Blackwood.
- Artist, the late Alex Colville.
- Former diplomat Allan Gotlieb.
- Television czar and publisher Moses Znaimer.