Alberta privacy commissioner urges legal reform after alleged voter list breach

Alberta’s privacy commissioner is calling for changes to provincial law following allegations that a separatist group accessed and published the province’s official voter list.

Elections Alberta says it is investigating a group known as the Centurion Project after an app linked to the group allegedly made public the names and addresses of nearly three million voters. According to the agency, official voter lists are only distributed to elected officials, registered political parties and authorized party representatives.

The app was removed following a court order earlier this week. Elections Alberta and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are now investigating how the data may have been obtained and whether any laws were violated.

Privacy commissioner Diane McLeod said in a statement that her office may not have jurisdiction over the alleged breach because political parties are not currently subject to Alberta’s main private-sector privacy legislation, the Personal Information and Privacy Act. She pointed to other provinces, including British Columbia, where political parties are covered under privacy laws.

“This incident demonstrates that it is high time for political parties to be made subject to the Personal Information and Privacy Act,” McLeod said. “What happened here is very serious.”

The office of Justice Minister Mickey Amery did not immediately respond to questions about whether the provincial government plans to introduce legislative changes. Connect Newsroom contacted the ministry for comment. No response was received by publication time.

The Centurion Project has said it will comply with the investigation. Its leader, David Parker, has previously stated the group’s goal was to identify and recruit supporters of Alberta separatism.