A thief stole classified documents from the head of Canada's central bank after smashing the window of his unattended Chrysler 300, the Globe and Mail reports.
Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of Canada, oversees that country's monetary policy. But the documents, according to what a Bank of Canada spokesperson told the Globe and Mail, don't contain sensitive information about interest rate policy, even though, to use Globe and Mail's phrase, they had "differing levels of security classification." The documents, stolen on November 1 in downtown Montreal, might not move markets, but the theft has made the central bank nervous about security.
An official Bank of Canada chauffeur, whose responsibilities include making sure the car he drives doesn't get broken into, was elsewhere when the car was broken into, Canadian Business reports. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have found the stolen bag but haven't yet determined whether they have all the stolen documents, Globe and Mail adds.
A 2009 profile of Carney presents him as a heroic, stabilizing influence on Canada's economy. While the rest of the world suffered, Canada's central bank "has sailed through this crisis with its international reputation almost unscathed," the story, in Canada's Walrus, says. The gloating continues:
"More so than in most developed countries, our chartered banks have been diligent about keeping plenty of capital on hand, meaning they could absorb a deluge of defaulting loans without becoming insolvent. Ottawa, meanwhile, owes less money per capita than any other G8 country. ... And the Bank of Canada, for its part, hasn't had to perform financial cpr on the country's banks."
As Business Insider points out, Carney spent 13 years in various executive roles at Goldman Sachs.
But, as The Walrus explains, Carney "and his young family grew weary of the peripatetic world of investment banking" and decided to settle down at Canada's central bank.