Here we go again.
Under C51, (the Anti-Terrorism Act passed by the Cons and Libs), Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has been given permission to share your income tax filings with 13 additional government agencies.
Money Sense reports Your tax info at heightened risk.
Money Sense is not exactly what one could call left wing civil liberties fanatics. Yet they report:
The CRA can now share not only your home address, but all of your financial information within the government, without any form of consent or a warrant.
All the CRA needs is to believe “there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the information would be relevant to an investigation of whether the activity of any person may constitute threats to the security of Canada.”
What’s more, the CRA can distribute these private details “on its own initiative,” possibly spurring…a “wide-scale fishing expedition.”
A Ryerson University professor says the more people that have access to taxpayer information under Bill C-51, the higher the risk of leaks, hacks and other foul play. He also says:
The change in legislation is “unprecedented. It’s snooping and meddling of the worst kind.”
Of course, CRA will have far more information about U.S. persons than they will about other Canadians because of FATCA. So the snooping and risk to us is mammoth.
Are we suspects of a “threat to the security of Canada?” Who knows?
I think we are defenders of Canada. But, I think it’s safe to assume the government is following Sandbox and Brock and that they consider us threats.
This is one more huge reason why we must persevere in our fight for our rights. Please keep those donations to ADCS coming.
Hmmm. Do they consider ADCS a “threat to the security of Canada” for standing up for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms?
This may bring an OMG moment even to those who have never been concerned about FATCA. Bill C-51 is arousing indignation among some that I have spoken with lately. I sometimes bring up FATCA with friends and neighbors and they all seem to come back with concern over bill C-51 and government snooping. Of course there is an obvious connection to defending our rights and freedoms.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention Lynne. This is another incentive to support the lawsuit and get our funds into FATCA exempt credit unions.
@PatCanadian Even scarier to me than the Cons bringing in C51 is the Libs voting for it.
The NDP and the Greens say they would repeal C51. However, I doubt either of them will be elected–but I would have said the same thing about the likelihood of an NDP government in Alberta until a few weeks ago!