Security experts say a leak of Alberta’s provincial list of voters – nearly three million names, addresses and phone numbers – has created a potential public safety and political interference crisis that could have ramifications for decades.
Personal information could be used by criminals for everything from fraud and extortion to kidnapping and witness tampering. Authoritarian regimes, like Russia or China, could use the information to interfere in Alberta’s politics by directly contacting voters.
Both Elections Alberta and the RCMP have launched separate investigations to determine how the private information of millions of citizens from Alberta’s official List of Electors ended up posted online by a separatist group called the Centurion Project. It allegedly accessed the database provided to the Republican Party of Alberta.
“For organized crime, that kind of information is gold,” said Neil LeMay, a former RCMP major crimes investigator who now runs a private investigation and security consulting company.
“It can be copied, traded, sold, cross-referenced and weaponized.
“In the hands of the wrong people, it becomes a criminal Rolodex — not for one election cycle, but potentially for decades.”
“Our data is in the wind, and that is a terrifying prospect,” said Patrick Lennox, former manager of criminal intelligence for the RCMP’s federal policing programs in Alberta.
Lennox said Russia, China and even the United States may have already scooped up the information.
“I think any authoritarian regime that is looking to undermine liberal democracies would be very interested in this type of data, because it enables them to communicate directly with citizens in a province that is about to have a separatist referendum,” he said.
“This is a treasure trove for them to be able to micro-target individuals and influence them to vote for separation.”
Former enforcement officials also say there is the obvious threat posed to the safety of police officers, politicians, judges, lawyers, prosecutors, academics, journalists, doctors – especially those who promote vaccines or abortion – and myriad other professions and groups like those vulnerable to domestic abuse, and senior citizens, who are already targeted by scammers.
Meanwhile, Alberta’s separatists continue their push to force a vote on independence from Canada despite the ongoing political fallout from the massive data breach.
On Monday, Alberta’s main separatist organization, Stay Free Alberta, presented a petition to Elections Alberta.
They claim to have gathered more than the required 178,000 valid signatures to trigger a referendum in October on Alberta’s separation from Canada.
The United Conservative Party, or UCP, government of Premier Danielle Smith has already scheduled a provincewide vote on Oct. 19 on nine questions.
Smith has claimed the questions will provide a mandate for her government on Alberta taking more control over immigration and constitutional reform, including more power to appoint judges and to opt out of federal programs.
How could such a leak happen?
“I’m surprised that nobody has actually called for a public inquiry into the data leak yet,” said University of Alberta political scientist Jared Wesley.
“There are so many different folks involved, and the stakes are so high that it’s important that before we start voting on a raft of very important constitutional and policy questions in the fall, let alone a possible referendum on separatism, that we clear the air.
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“We need to ensure that everyone can see what happened in this situation, and everyone who is speaking about it should be doing so in public as much as possible and under oath,” said Wesley, who was in the midst of having a security system installed in his home when Global News called for an interview.
Even for those immersed in Alberta politics, it is difficult to fathom how this data leak – one of the biggest in Canadian history – could possibly happen.
The public learned about it due to the enterprise of independent Edmonton-based journalist Jeremy Appel, who first broke the story after he attended the first meeting of the Centurion Project in Edmonton on Wednesday.
The Centurion Project is the brainchild of well-known Alberta political operative and separatist activist, David Parker. It’s a data-driven, grassroots effort that organizes and trains volunteers to identify and recruit supporters for Alberta’s independence movement.
Allegedly using information from Alberta’s List of Electors, the project created a website that allowed users to search for people they may know by name or address, enabling them to reach out to them directly.
In one training video, the Centurion Project featured the home address of former NDP leader Rachel Notley, who, during her time as premier, had received at least 11 death threats.
After Parker finished speaking at the event, Appel witnessed an investigator from Elections Alberta, accompanied by two Edmonton police officers, informing another of the Centurion Project’s founders that it should not have the elector’s list and that they were under investigation. A video of the interaction has been posted on TikTok.
Only official political parties, candidates, constituency associations, and MLAs are permitted access to the List of Electors, and they must agree in writing to a list of rules about how that information can be used and by whom.
Elections Alberta salts the electors’ lists with the names of fake voters, so if one copy of a list is leaked, the agency can trace its origins. An analysis determined the list came from the Republican Party of Alberta, headed by Cam Davies, who, like Parker, has a well-documented history in Alberta as a political operative who pushes boundaries.
During the 2017 UCP leadership campaign, Davies was a key player in a scheme by the campaign of Jason Kenney to run a so-called kamikaze candidate to attack a third candidate.
Kenney won the leadership and became premier, but years later was pushed out through an internal UCP campaign, Take Back Alberta, founded by Parker, who had previously worked as a political organizer under former prime minister Stephen Harper.
There is evidence on social media that Parker’s project supported the Alberta Prosperity Project’s petition campaign. In a post on X, Jeff Rath, a main leader of the Free Alberta separatists, directed people to The Centurion Project.
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Davies has said he granted access to vendors under contract, as is allowed by Alberta’s Election Act, to conduct political work, such as contacting voters and soliciting donations. He said he rescinded that access through cease-and-desist letters after the database’s alleged misuse by The Centurion Project.
Davies did not respond to an email from Global News asking which vendors he had hired and whether the RCMP had executed a search warrant at his home.
Parker told The Globe and Mail he bought a compilation of information from a third-party vendor for $45,000, while he told Global News he rented the data.
Citing a non-disclosure agreement he refused to disclose the vendor’s name.
Elections Alberta has said Davies is responsible for the information he provided to his vendors.
In an emergency hearing last week, Elections Alberta successfully obtained an injunction that forced The Centurion Project to take down the database.
Parker said he is fully cooperating with the Elections Alberta investigation, which is expected to determine how the List of Electors went from Davies to Parker.
Were early warnings ignored?
There is another bizarre and troubling twist to the story.
Writing in the publication she co-founded, The Line, Calgary journalist Jen Gerson disclosed that, after receiving a detailed anonymous tip, she had warned Elections Alberta on March 31 that there was a serious breach.
Gerson had determined that anyone with even rudimentary web skills could download the entire database.
The next day, an Elections Alberta investigator contacted Gerson. But on April 10, Elections Commissioner Paula Hale told Gerson her information was compelling, “but with the evidence currently available there are not reasonable grounds to allow me to direct an investigation into a potential breach of Section 20(2) of the Election Act by the Centurion Project.”
Back in May 2025, Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure warned the UCP that changes they were making to the Elections Act would create a much higher threshold for justifying an investigation.
letter re Bill 54 Election Statutes Amendment Act
As an independent office of the legislature, Elections Alberta strives to be politically neutral. But in an extraordinary recent news release, the agency explained that the legislative changes “requires that we must have ‘reasonable grounds to believe that an offence has occurred.’
“This is similar to the amount of evidence, that in a criminal matter, police would need to arrest someone. Reasonable grounds is a much higher standard than ‘grounds to warrant,” which had been the threshold under the old legislation.
Elections Alberta, in its statement, said it didn’t receive credible information until April 27 that The Centurion Project was in possession of the List of Electors and “inquiries into the validity of this information began immediately.”
The Alberta NDP said it “alerted authorities” on April 17 about the breach.
NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi is now calling for McClure, the chief electoral officer, to be summoned to an emergency meeting to explain when he became aware of the breach “and why action appears to have been taken so late.”
Even as public safety and privacy experts issue dire warnings, and the Opposition point the finger of blame at the UCP’s shortsighted structuring of the Elections Act, Smith, who is on a trade mission in the United Kingdom, said that her government is aware of the potential breach and that those responsible must be held accountable.
Lennox, the former RCMP intelligence manager, said Smith’s response was totally inadequate.
“The minute it became known, the premier should have been on TV or on radio assuring Albertans that the data leak will be traced to the ends of the earth,” he said.
“She should have said that searchable databases of their information will be taken down instantly, and any copies of that data will be hunted down with every ounce of their powers and resources.”
Charles Rusnell is an Edmonton-based independent investigative journalist.
It’s ALWAYS somebody else’s fault.
Calling the leaked info “just white pages stuff” is nonsense. The white pages didn’t list people’s political involvement, didn’t bundle everything together in a searchable database, and definitely didn’t make it easy for bad actors to target people. Data aggregation matters, and pretending it doesn’t is just ignoring how the internet works.
Saying the safety concerns are “overblown” is the same problem. Once people’s info is out there, you can’t control who uses it or how. Targeted harassment is a real thing, and brushing it off doesn’t make anyone safer.
The idea that the media is being vague just to smear the whole Alberta independence movement doesn’t hold up either. Reporters avoid specifics in any data breach because repeating leaked personal info is unethical. That’s not a political conspiracy — that’s standard practice.
And sure, maybe Centurion isn’t the same group that ran the petition. Fine. But that doesn’t magically erase the fact that someone in the broader ecosystem handled people’s data recklessly. Data responsibility doesn’t disappear because the groups have different names.
As for the politicians in the room — saying “they didn’t know” doesn’t really help. If you’re an elected official and someone shows you a tool built on scraped personal data, you should at least be asking questions. Ignorance isn’t a great defense.
The information in this leak is nothing more than what used to be found in the white pages phone book. Claims of risks to personal safety are being widely blown out of proportion, and when combined with a deliberate lack of specificity in reporting, is being used to paint the entire Alberta independence movement with the same brush.
The Centurion project is not the same group that sponsored the petition, and information wasn’t shared with Stay Free Alberta.
News that there were UCP and NDP politicians at the even where the data breech was shown off as a legitimate tool is concerning, but your average politician is not an investigator, and would not have known that the information was clandestine had they not been told.
Albertans need to take more care over who they share their info with. Keep sharing to a minimum. Example how many have a Sobeys scene card? They ask enough questions to apply that if that data ever leaked your identity can be easily stolen. Wake up and take more care!
Just a pathetic state of affairs in Alberta, and it’s all, yet again, on another Conservative government. Just pathetic and corrupt.
This is the end of Alberta. Millions of people will get unsolicited phone calls from all sorts of political parties now that phone numbers have been released. Albertan’s have never have got telemarketing phone calls in the past and now when they do because of the release of the phone list, Albertan’s will face mental health issues, panic attacks, and worse. It is a disaster of unimaginable consequences!
@Les: Liberals in Alberta? You have the wrong side of the country fella. Maybe Quebec?
What did people seriously think would happen?
Organized crime? I’m more concerned with what the LPC would do with that info.
Why would Smith take any affirmative action on the data breach, when her Party has been actively subverting any and all legislation to prevent such a criminal act. Her Party has been doing everything to enable the fringe elements in this province, from the Take Back Alberta nut jobs (who took it away??), to the Republican infiltrators ( remember the ’70 draft dodgers) to the Fire and Brimstone Evangelists, all bent on destroying what we True Albertans have built. Remember this come next election and ensure you go out and vote to end this seditious invasion before it’s too late.
@ Peter: So you can’t write in English but you know the voter list leak didn’t happen….ok goof.
Empty skull Smith loses track of lists for her right wing pacs. Who didn’t see this coming?
the petition was completely above board when i signed i had to show a electric bill because my license had a po box. it will be certified im sure. gooo carney
It’s not real. It’s just a cult…
It’s just another ostrich or freedom convoy situation.!
Every time a law is inconvenient for the separatists–whether it’s illegal to post a referendum that is against the Constitution, how many signatures are needed and how long they have to gather them, or what it takes to trigger an Elections Alberta investigation, the UCP changes it to help them.
This time, they let the separatists illegally keep and use a database for a month–plenty of time for hundreds of copies of it to be made–before Elections Canada could even look into it.
Collusion, anyone?
Where is the outrage when Carney does it? NDP does it all the time also. Total hypocrisy by the left.
Typical and JUST LIKE Albertans, they claim to want to separate from Canada but don’t want to be identified as such… very two faced province there, polluting for personal gain and completely dependent on toxic energy…with zero accountability whatsoever.
I for one would NOT be sad to see oilberta leave..
but to not ever know WHO MADE A CHOICE TO DECLARE THEY WISH TO LEAVE CANADA IS cowardly and typical of that province of addicts
As usual conservatives trying to win by cheating. Only in low brow Alberta would these idiots be worshipped. Idiocracy at its finest
The Stay Free Alberta group has nothing to do with this.
Danielle Smith, this is all at your feet. You pandered to the far right wing and this is what we get. Shame on you. Disgusting! The chickens have come home to roost. What did you talk about at David Parker’s wedding? These are your friends Danielle. Wear it!
If you want to see how good a job a group will do in managing future projects and systems, look to see how good (or bad) a job they’re doing with what they already have.
I support Alberta Independence and agree that this us a big deal. You can’t be cavalier with anyone’s personal data – whether it is in a “phone book” or not.
The independence movement does have serious players, but the Republican Party is not one. Sadly, their stupidity is painting some very thoughtful people with the brush of idiocy.
Not even in power yet and already a gong show. Haven’t even left the starting gate and somehow they believe they can be their own country?! Lol…there are no words.
Global is sure making a big deal about this. A lot of the information is posted on people’s Facebook page. All registered political parties have the list which is accessed by whoever is creating the phone or mailing lists. And finally some rural municipalities still get phone books with name, address and phone number. It is not a dangerous data breach that Global is claiming.
Your full name, date of birth, and address are not details available on 411 or that are provided when shopping. Keep drinking the cool aid folks, it is such a disappointing time in Alberta’s history.
The Republican Party of Alberta and David Parker need to be jailed. This is heinous and they are traitors.
Naturally, the voters lists the NDP share with their union cronies is perfectly fine, eh….
The valid question is why do we as electors need to have our information given to political parties in first place. This is true on both a provincial and federal list of electors. With people being what people are, this will happen sooner or later with federal lists as well.
Alberta is cooked. Smith is going to sell out her own people to the US. Just wait.
Wow talk about a scare tactic! We give away ten times the information when we go shopping for absolutely anything then was given away bythis list! But this is how to spread fear right from our own governments! How many data breachs have we had caused byvour own federal government but yet this is a national disaster? If there was not a very very strong independent movement in Alberta right now that the government and mainstream media are trying to stop at all costs there would have been no mention of this story whatsoever!
Voting in Alberta doesn’t matter anyway. Ontario and Quebec decide the federal results.
According to Chat the info on a voting list is no different than a 411 search except for voter ID number. How hard would it be to issue everyone a new number?
TBH if you send a fool your details don’t be surprised if it gets leaked
The groups I do not want to have my information is the NDP!