A polling station in Medicine Hat, Alta., in 2022.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
The RCMP is investigating allegations that a separatist organization in Alberta inappropriately accessed and distributed personal information originating from the province’s list of electors, containing data for 2.9 million residents.
Fraser Logan, a spokesman for the RCMP in Alberta, confirmed in a statement on Thursday that a person associated with the province’s New Democratic Party flagged the potential misuse of Elections Alberta’s list of electors.
“The RCMP has initiated an investigation and is working with other law enforcement partners in the province to determine if any offence(s) have been committed respecting the dissemination or handling of the information contained in the voter list,” Mr. Logan said in the statement.
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His statement did not name the organizations or people under investigation, but Elections Alberta on Thursday alleged that a separatist organization known as the Centurion Project was using the Republican Party of Alberta’s copy of the list of electors without authorization. The party is pressing for an independent Alberta.
Registered political parties have access to Alberta’s list of electors but must safeguard the sensitive information and only use it for activities outlined in the Election Act. Alberta law prohibits third-party organizations, such as the Centurion Project, from accessing the province’s list of electors.
Alberta’s separatists are pushing to have a question about independence included on the government’s referendum ballot, scheduled for Oct. 19.
An Alberta court on Thursday ordered an injunction that prevents the Centurion Project from sharing information that Elections Alberta alleges stems from the list of electors.
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The Centurion Project distributed elector information to approved users through an app that went dark after Court of King’s Bench Justice John Little issued the injunction Thursday morning. The project was using the app to identify support for separation in the province.
Elections Alberta believes Centurion’s data originated from the Republican Party of Alberta’s list of electors.
“The list that populates the Centurion Project’s database, at one point, was in the hands of the Republican Party of Alberta,” Joseph Redman, a lawyer for Elections Alberta, told an Edmonton court. As part of the court’s injunction, the Republican Party of Alberta was temporarily prohibited from sharing the list of electors.
The Centurion Project and the Republican Party of Alberta, in separate statements, said they will comply with any investigations.
Elections Alberta’s list of electors contains 2.9 million names, along with personal data, such as elector identification numbers and addresses. Elector lists are powerful tools in campaigns because they allow candidates and parties to identify potential voters and gauge support through door-knocking and phoning.
The agency seeds the lists of electors it distributes to eligible recipients with fake information, which can then be used to trace leaks. Mr. Redman said this is how Elections Alberta linked the Centurion Project to the Republican Party of Alberta.
Elections Alberta said it has notified the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta.
The Centurion Project organizes and trains volunteers to identify and recruit supporters for Alberta’s independence movement. Its app allowed users to search for residents by name or address. It filtered for towns, ridings and polling subdivisions.
“The Centurion Project is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming months,” David Parker, one of the organization’s leaders, wrote on X on April 20. “We have the backing, we have the momentum, and now we have the tool.”
The app was designed to help separatist volunteers canvas friends and family about their views on the province breaking free from the rest of the country.
Mr. Parker, in an interview with The Globe and Mail, maintained that he has not done anything illegal. He also compared Centurion’s data with information found in phone books.
But the root database powering Centurion’s app contains much more information than what was accessible with a simple search.
The Globe accessed the app’s root database, which contained names and addresses for 2,957,857 Albertans. The root database also contains unique elector identification numbers, middle names and 2,083,175 phone numbers.
Mr. Parker said he would co-operate with authorities.
“We will be complying with all investigations,” he said in a message, confirming this includes Elections Alberta’s probe.
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Mr. Parker is an avid separatist and co-founder of Take Back Alberta, an organization previously home to many on the right flank of the United Conservative Party.
In the Centurion Project, volunteers could “claim” electors on the list and fill out a survey about their views on separation. This allowed organizers to measure support with precision, giving them insight on how best to deploy volunteers and money.
And should a question on separation end up on the ballot, the volunteers would be responsible for herding the electors they claimed come referendum day, making it a grassroots get-out-the-vote tool.
The Centurion Project’s leaders insisted the app was harmless and the data secure.
Mr. Parker’s politics overlap with the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta, Cam Davies. Mr. Davies told The Globe that his organization had provided the list of electors to a number of vendors, to use for authorized purposes. He said the Republican Party of Alberta has contacted those vendors to determine if the list leaked or had been misused.
When asked how people are to accept that Mr. Davies was unaware of how Mr. Parker allegedly accessed the elector list, the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta said: “We share similar ideologies, but we’re not always aligned on similar methodologies.”
Mr. Davies said he plans to help the Mounties. “We will comply and assist any investigation,” he said in a message.
Elections Alberta received a complaint about the Centurion Project on April 1, according to a letter obtained by The Globe.
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Paula Hale, the Alberta Election Commissioner, in the April 10 letter said her office conducted a preliminary review and “with the evidence currently available there are not reasonable grounds to allow me to direct an investigation into a potential breach of” the rules governing who is permitted access to the list of electors.
“Please know that I found the evidence that you provided to be compelling, and I want to reassure you that I take the unauthorized use of the list of electors very seriously,” Ms. Hale wrote. “Unfortunately, I was unable to discount the potential that the data that you attributed to being from the list of electors was not from another legitimate source such as Canada Post or the various data brokers.”
On Thursday, Elections Alberta explained why it failed to act prior to this week.
“The standard of reasonable grounds is akin to the level of evidence required to arrest someone. This is a high threshold,” spokeswoman Michelle Gurney said in a statement.
“An allegation or speculation alone does not meet this threshold. Complaints that fall short of providing reasonable grounds cannot be investigated, no matter how serious they may appear to be. That means we cannot take action on potential or possible activities that may be occurring.”
Elections Alberta did not disclose the earlier complaint and preliminary review when it detailed its investigation process on Thursday.
Instead, the organization said it received “credible information” on April 27 that the Centurion Project may have access to the list of electors. “Inquiries into the validity of this information began immediately,” Elections Alberta said in the statement.