Separatist leader accused of misusing Alberta electors list refuses to co-operate with investigators
Carrie Tait ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/carrie-tait/[/url]) and Matthew Scace ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/matthew-scace/[/url])
Published YesterdayUpdated 21 minutes ago
The leader of the separatist organization accused of misusing Alberta’s list of electors by providing hundreds of supporters with access to private information belonging to 2.9 million residents is refusing to co-operate with investigators.
David Parker, the political organizer behind the Centurion Project, is stonewalling Elections Alberta, according to a statement from the head of the agency.
“I can confirm David Parker is not cooperating with the investigation and he has refused to sign a statutory declaration confirming that he will comply with my direction to cease and desist with respect to the list of electors,” Gordon McClure, Alberta’s chief electoral officer, said in a statement to The Globe and Mail.
Nearly 600 people had unauthorized access to Alberta’s electors list, watchdog alleges ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-unauthorized-access-to-alberta-electors-list-watchdog-alleges/[/url])
Mr. Parker did not respond to messages late Monday afternoon. He previously stated he would co-operate with investigators, including those at Elections Alberta.
He has a combative history with the provincial agency, which he argues oversteps its authority to the detriment of citizens.
“Elections Alberta is an evil institution that is used to suppress democracy,” he wrote on X on April 18, before the agency alleged the Centurion Project violated election laws. “I will not rest until everyone responsible for the lawfare being waged out of that den of evil are brought to justice.”
David Parker is the political organizer behind the Centurion Project.Jude Brocke/The Globe and Mail
Elections Alberta at the end of April alleged the Centurion Project had unauthorized access to the province’s list of electors. The agency alleged Centurion improperly accessed a list issued to the Republican Party of Alberta, a separatist political party that had lawful access to the data.
The RCMP in April announced a separate investigation. The affair heightened tensions within separatist ranks, sparked fear the data could be misused by domestic and foreign players, and prompted concerns about the integrity of a potential referendum on Alberta separation in October.
Cam Davies, the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta, is taking a different approach than Mr. Parker, his friend and political ally.
“We are assisting [Elections Alberta] with the investigation,” he said in a statement Monday.
Premier Danielle Smith’s government earlier this year scheduled a referendum, largely centred on questions around immigration, for Oct. 19. Alberta’s separatists last week handed in a petition with roughly 301,000 names in support of adding a secession question to the ballot.
The Centurion Project used a tool that allowed volunteers to look up electors by partial name or address and then record how those residentsfelt about Alberta separating from the rest of Canada. While registered political parties are permitted access to electoral lists, which they use to identify supporters, third parties such as the Centurion Project are not.
Foreign actors exploiting Alberta separatist debate to stoke discord, researchers say ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-alberta-separation-being-targeted-by-foreign-actors-seeking-to-stoke/[/url])
Elections Alberta obtained an injunction on April 30 requiring the Centurion Project to stop distributing information derived from the list. But court documents reveal the agency received a previously undisclosed tip that a separatist group may have had access to the province’s highly guarded list.
The documents, obtained by The Globe and Mail, reveal that someone who wished to remain anonymous left Elections Alberta a voicemail on April 21, “regarding concerns” the Centurion Project had the list of electors and was using the data to support its push for secession. This newly disclosed tip is in addition to one provided by journalist Jen Gerson on March 31, which came to light at the end of last month.
In both cases, Election Commissioner Paula Hale determined the tips did not provide enough evidence to trigger an investigation. This allowed the Centurion Project to leave its database online, available to approved users, until Elections Alberta obtained its injunction.
Editorial: Looking beneath the myths of Alberta separatism ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-looking-beneath-the-myths-of-alberta-separatism/[/url])
Ms. Smith’s government in 2025 pushed through changes that Elections Alberta argues limited the agency’s ability to investigate potential wrongdoing and issue sanctions. The government, for example, amended legislation so the agency must now have “reasonable grounds” to launch investigations, compared with the lower hurdle of “grounds to warrant.”
Elections Alberta claims the new standard prohibited it from investigating the Centurion Project prior to April 29; the government disputes this argument.
Ryan Tebb, an investigator with Elections Alberta, in an affidavit said an administrative support employee in the agency’s compliance and enforcement division sent him an e-mail on April 24 containing a video demonstrating how to use the Centurion Project’s app.
He compared information displayed in the video, including electoral divisions and polling subdivisions, against the agency’s database of electors, which led him to believe the Centurion Project “was likely in possession of at least a partial provincial list of electors or potentially a combination of lists of electors,” his affidavit says.
Ms. Hale wrote that the inclusion of electoral divisions and polling subdivisions was “compelling evidence that this data base was created using one or more lists of electors,” according to court documents.
On April 29, Abdullah Bin Naeem, Elections Alberta’s director of technology platforms and innovation, compiled a list of 2,587 fake names that the agency sprinkles throughout the list of electors provided to eligible recipients, in order to trace leaks. He created a digital tool that found 87 fake entries, which corresponded to the list of electors Elections Alberta provided to the Republican Party of Alberta, according to his affidavit.
Mr. Bin Naeem’s affidavit does not indicate whether Elections Alberta accessed the app’s root database. The agency declined to answer, stating that information is related to the investigation.
The Globe’s own analysis determined the root database contained unique elector identification numbers, middle names and 2,083,175 phone numbers – much more information than what was accessible with a simple search on the app.
Carrie Tait ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/carrie-tait/[/url]) and Matthew Scace ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/matthew-scace/[/url])
Published YesterdayUpdated 21 minutes ago
The leader of the separatist organization accused of misusing Alberta’s list of electors by providing hundreds of supporters with access to private information belonging to 2.9 million residents is refusing to co-operate with investigators.
David Parker, the political organizer behind the Centurion Project, is stonewalling Elections Alberta, according to a statement from the head of the agency.
“I can confirm David Parker is not cooperating with the investigation and he has refused to sign a statutory declaration confirming that he will comply with my direction to cease and desist with respect to the list of electors,” Gordon McClure, Alberta’s chief electoral officer, said in a statement to The Globe and Mail.
Nearly 600 people had unauthorized access to Alberta’s electors list, watchdog alleges ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-unauthorized-access-to-alberta-electors-list-watchdog-alleges/[/url])
Mr. Parker did not respond to messages late Monday afternoon. He previously stated he would co-operate with investigators, including those at Elections Alberta.
He has a combative history with the provincial agency, which he argues oversteps its authority to the detriment of citizens.
“Elections Alberta is an evil institution that is used to suppress democracy,” he wrote on X on April 18, before the agency alleged the Centurion Project violated election laws. “I will not rest until everyone responsible for the lawfare being waged out of that den of evil are brought to justice.”
David Parker is the political organizer behind the Centurion Project.Jude Brocke/The Globe and Mail
Elections Alberta at the end of April alleged the Centurion Project had unauthorized access to the province’s list of electors. The agency alleged Centurion improperly accessed a list issued to the Republican Party of Alberta, a separatist political party that had lawful access to the data.
The RCMP in April announced a separate investigation. The affair heightened tensions within separatist ranks, sparked fear the data could be misused by domestic and foreign players, and prompted concerns about the integrity of a potential referendum on Alberta separation in October.
Cam Davies, the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta, is taking a different approach than Mr. Parker, his friend and political ally.
“We are assisting [Elections Alberta] with the investigation,” he said in a statement Monday.
Premier Danielle Smith’s government earlier this year scheduled a referendum, largely centred on questions around immigration, for Oct. 19. Alberta’s separatists last week handed in a petition with roughly 301,000 names in support of adding a secession question to the ballot.
The Centurion Project used a tool that allowed volunteers to look up electors by partial name or address and then record how those residentsfelt about Alberta separating from the rest of Canada. While registered political parties are permitted access to electoral lists, which they use to identify supporters, third parties such as the Centurion Project are not.
Foreign actors exploiting Alberta separatist debate to stoke discord, researchers say ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-alberta-separation-being-targeted-by-foreign-actors-seeking-to-stoke/[/url])
Elections Alberta obtained an injunction on April 30 requiring the Centurion Project to stop distributing information derived from the list. But court documents reveal the agency received a previously undisclosed tip that a separatist group may have had access to the province’s highly guarded list.
The documents, obtained by The Globe and Mail, reveal that someone who wished to remain anonymous left Elections Alberta a voicemail on April 21, “regarding concerns” the Centurion Project had the list of electors and was using the data to support its push for secession. This newly disclosed tip is in addition to one provided by journalist Jen Gerson on March 31, which came to light at the end of last month.
In both cases, Election Commissioner Paula Hale determined the tips did not provide enough evidence to trigger an investigation. This allowed the Centurion Project to leave its database online, available to approved users, until Elections Alberta obtained its injunction.
Editorial: Looking beneath the myths of Alberta separatism ([url]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-looking-beneath-the-myths-of-alberta-separatism/[/url])
Ms. Smith’s government in 2025 pushed through changes that Elections Alberta argues limited the agency’s ability to investigate potential wrongdoing and issue sanctions. The government, for example, amended legislation so the agency must now have “reasonable grounds” to launch investigations, compared with the lower hurdle of “grounds to warrant.”
Elections Alberta claims the new standard prohibited it from investigating the Centurion Project prior to April 29; the government disputes this argument.
Ryan Tebb, an investigator with Elections Alberta, in an affidavit said an administrative support employee in the agency’s compliance and enforcement division sent him an e-mail on April 24 containing a video demonstrating how to use the Centurion Project’s app.
He compared information displayed in the video, including electoral divisions and polling subdivisions, against the agency’s database of electors, which led him to believe the Centurion Project “was likely in possession of at least a partial provincial list of electors or potentially a combination of lists of electors,” his affidavit says.
Ms. Hale wrote that the inclusion of electoral divisions and polling subdivisions was “compelling evidence that this data base was created using one or more lists of electors,” according to court documents.
On April 29, Abdullah Bin Naeem, Elections Alberta’s director of technology platforms and innovation, compiled a list of 2,587 fake names that the agency sprinkles throughout the list of electors provided to eligible recipients, in order to trace leaks. He created a digital tool that found 87 fake entries, which corresponded to the list of electors Elections Alberta provided to the Republican Party of Alberta, according to his affidavit.
Mr. Bin Naeem’s affidavit does not indicate whether Elections Alberta accessed the app’s root database. The agency declined to answer, stating that information is related to the investigation.
The Globe’s own analysis determined the root database contained unique elector identification numbers, middle names and 2,083,175 phone numbers – much more information than what was accessible with a simple search on the app.
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