Privacy trumps taxman.

• Author: Mitchell, Teresa

An Ontario woman has won an important victory for all Canadian taxpayers. Sandra Gernhart filed for a re-assessment of her tax return. As an automatic result of filing her appeal, her income tax returns were, in accordance with s. 176 of the Income Tax Act, transferred in their entirety to the Federal Court of Canada, where anyone willing to pay the photocopy charges could access them. She used section 8 of the Charter protecting Canadians against unlawful search and seizure to challenge the transfer. Justice Edgar Sexton agreed with the taxpayer; noting "In my view, s. 176 of the Act constitutes a significant intrusion on the privacy interests of an individual. Even if one assumes that only a small degree of privacy...