Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party (UCP) is denying wrongdoing after at least one member of its caucus staff took part in a virtual call last month with a separatist group that is now accused of publishing the province’s list of voters.
Caucus staff involvement
Last week, a justice granted an injunction prohibiting the Republican Party of Alberta from accessing or sharing the list, which Elections Alberta said had been distributed to a different separatist group dubbed the Centurion Project that is led by Take Back Alberta founder David Parker.
In question period at the legislature Tuesday, Official Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi challenged Premier Danielle Smith’s assertion that she had learned of the leak on social media by presenting a series of images purporting to show that a UCP caucus official had participated in an April 16 call with the Centurion Project.
“When did the government and the United Conservative Party learn of the state of the breach, and what did they do about it,” Nenshi asked.
Smith replied by questioning why Nenshi didn’t notify the government and said Elections Alberta had the information it needed to launch an investigation. “There’s also (Edmonton police) and RCMP who are looking into criminal charges in the matter and we have to let the process play out.”
Nenshi responded by pointing out that one of the screenshots from the call showed the name Arundeep Sandhu, who is listed as the UCP caucus office’s director of stakeholder relations. “When did anyone in the premier’s office, in her staff, or the party alert the relevant authorities,” he asked, noting the law requires them to do so and that he had sent the video to the RCMP.
“I think the member opposite is asking for us to politically interfere in an independent investigation, and we will not do that,” Smith said.
UCP caucus statement
The UCP caucus issued a statement later Tuesday acknowledging caucus staff dialled in to the April 16 video call and noted staffers “regularly attend events of political interest.”
“The organizers of this meeting were adamant that the data being used was obtained legally. At the time, the staff observing the meeting had no reason to believe the website in question was unlawful,” the statement read. “We remain concerned about the allegations of a potential data breach and are awaiting the results of the ongoing investigations by Elections Alberta and the RCMP.”
Speaking with reporters after question period, Nenshi said the party obtained a recording of the meeting which he said was led by Parker and included a demonstration of the Centurion app which included looking up the information of former premier and separatist opponent Jason Kenney.
“This scandal is far worse than we imagined. It means that the premier’s own staff and her most senior party officials knew about this data breach and did nothing,” he said.
