The Royal Bank of Canada’s head office at Royal Bank Plaza in Toronto’s Financial District. A former RBC employee was recently charged for allegedly accessing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s personal banking information.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

Carlin McGoogan is a lawyer who has been practising civil litigation and privacy law for the past 19 years with Du Vernet, Stewart in Mississauga.

The recent news that a former RBC employee has been charged for allegedly accessing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s personal banking information is disappointing and alarming.

But it’s not surprising. In fact, the basic reported facts of this intrusion into the Prime Minister’s personal banking affairs appear nearly identical to those that arose in a case in which I acted as counsel some 13 years ago, in 2012.

In that case, Jones v. Tsige, the Ontario Court of Appeal recognized the tort of intrusion upon seclusion for the first time. A bank employee – an employee of the Bank of Montreal – had used her workplace computer to access the personal banking information of her boyfriend’s ex-wife at least 174 times without authorization, and indeed........

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