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In Britain, France and other countries, numerous high ranking civil servants and business leaders identified as offshore account holders have landed in court. In the U.S. alone, scores have been hit with huge fines and even jail time. But none in Canada have even been charged, despite the fact that the CRA had access to virtually all those leaked lists.

Critics say that’s just proof that the government is lax on tax evasion. Sure, the CRA comes down hard on the small timers — the low hanging fruit — but when it comes to the wealthy, the agency turns a blind eye.

The CRA says that’s wrong. It insists enforces the law evenly without favour to any segment of the population. Indeed, it claims it has already collected billions of dollars tax revenue accrued on secret offshore accounts, though nearly all through its voluntary disclosure plan under which Canadians who have hidden money can voluntarily come forward and declare it with minimal penalties.

A report by Auditor General Michael Ferguson released earlier this week appeared to support that view. Focusing the list of depositors of Liechtenstein-based LGT Group that was handed to the Canadian government back in 2007, Mr. Ferguson concluded that the CRA handled the matter appropriately. Auditors distilled the list of nearly 200 Canadian depositors down to 81 family groups, according to the report. However, they were unable to question 35 of those families because members were either deceased, had left the country or simply disappeared. The remaining 46 were audited — 22 were handed tax bills of $24.7-million. But instead of going after wrong-doers with the full weight of the law, the CRA instead used the threat of legal action as a bargaining chip to obtain additional financial information from the families.