Bags filled with documents containing sensitive financial information were found in a North End back lane on Tuesday. (CBC)
The bags contained tax return documents that include people's names, social insurance numbers and in many cases, addresses and other sensitive financial information.
Many of the documents appear to have been written in 2006.
'This can ruin people's lives.'—Ron Mowat
They were located in a Dufferin Avenue back lane near the offices of a local accounting firm. The firm has not returned calls from CBC News.
"It just boggles your mind that stuff like that could be left laying around a back alley where anybody could pick it up," said Ron Mowat, who lives nearby. "It's just, it's sad."
"This can ruin people's lives," he said.
Ramone Palsis, one of the people named in the documents, was shocked to learn of how they had been disposed of after a CBC reporter contacted him.
"That's no good," he said.
A city lawyer who specializes in privacy issues said there are too many similar cases of careless disposal of documents.
However, Brian Bowman said he believes there's little chance in this case of a person having their identity stolen.
"I do however think people should be vigilant in reviewing and monitoring their credit reports [and] in reviewing the frequency of their mail to make sure that mail isn't being intercepted by someone," Bowman said.
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