CRA Privacy Breach Class Action

Rice Harbut Elliott LLP is advancing class action lawsuits against the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) and the Government of Canada (known formally as “His Majesty the King”) on behalf of all persons in Canada whose personal or financial information in their Government of Canada Online Account (CRA account, “My Services Canada” account, or other government accounts) was disclosed to a third party without authorization between March 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020.

Current Status
Overview

Current Status

The Federal Court heard the certification application on May 11-13, 2022 and certification was granted.

The Court approved Notice of Certification and opt out forms can be found here.

The deadline to opt out is November 27, 2023.

The full decision of Mr. Justice Southcott can be found here.

RHE lawyers, Anthony Leoni, Silvana Herra, and Matthew Burtini are Class Counsel. If you have any questions or require further information, kindly contact Natalie Beaupre-Fulton at nbeaupre-fulton@rhelaw.com.

Overview

The claim alleges that the government of Canada was negligent in safeguarding the confidential information of Canadians that was housed electronically within various online government portals. These inadequate safeguards allowed bad actors to access the online CRA accounts of Canadians absent their consent, view confidential and private details and, in many cases, apply for CERB benefits.

This proceeding has been commenced both in Federal Court and in the BC Supreme Court. Depending on various factors, you may qualify for either action. A copy of the Fourth Amended Statement of Claim in the Federal Court action can be found here. A copy of the Notice of Civil Claim in the BCSC action can be found here.

If you have not yet registered with RHE, please fill out the form on this page. We will provide the class with further updates when any material developments occur.

Class Action Form

Contact Information

Name *

First

Last

Email *

Phone

Address (unit no., building/house number, street name)

City/ Town

Province

Postal Code

Subject *

Type of account that was breached

If you selected other, please input the name of the account

Approximate date that you learned of the unauthorized breach to your account

Prior to the breach, did you use the Sign-In Partner method to sign into your account?

Did an unauthorized person claim CERB benefits using your account?

Other Comments

Consent *

I provide my consent and agree herein to receive communications from RHE LLP, which may include announcements regarding class actions, practice updates, newsletters, publications, event invitations or other information that may be of interest. I understand that I can unsubscribe to these emails at any time. I understand that some of the personal information that I provide may be stored or processed outside of British Columbia and/or Canada, on a US server, and will be kept confidential, subject to the potential that a foreign state may seek to access the data for “lawful access” purposes. If you have any questions about RHE’s policies and practices regarding service providers outside Canada, or about the collection, use, disclosure or storage of personal information by the service providers outside Canada, please contact reception@rhelaw.com.

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