Calgary journalist notified Elections Alberta about voter list breach weeks ago

A Calgary-based journalist says she notified Elections Alberta of the leak a month ago and alleges the watchdog didn't act.

As RCMP and Elections Alberta investigate an online database that exposed the personal information of millions of voters, a Calgary journalist says she warned Elections Alberta about the issue a month ago.

Jen Gerson says she received a tip from an anonymous source in March warning that a new separatist group had access to Alberta’s list of electors.

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Gerson says she immediately passed along the information to Elections Alberta, then received a Notice of Outcome on April 10.

“[Elections Alberta] said even though the evidence I provided was ‘compelling,’ they could not rule out the possibility that this database had been seated with third-party data, and so therefore they wouldn’t be moving forward with an investigation,” Gerson said.

Weeks later, Alberta’s opposition party says it too learned that leak – but still, no action.

“I think that I was first informed about it on April 16 or 17,” Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi said. “At that point, we were in receipt of a letter from Elections Alberta saying they would take no further action, but we felt there was a serious breach here … So at that point we contacted police, we contacted RCMP and we heard that they were investigating.”

It appears that list of electors remained online and accessible until this week, when a judge ordered The Centurion Project’s app be removed.

The app made public the first, middle and last names of 2.9 million voters, as well as their addresses, postal codes, phone numbers, unique electoral identifier numbers, electoral divisions and voting areas.

Alberta’s privacy commissioner, Diane McLeod, says there’s a risk of significant harm in that information being public — especially for public officials, and those fleeing intimate partner violence.

“There is a whole range of very possible, very dangerous consequences here,” added Duane Bratt political scientist at Mount Royal University. “This is not a left/right issue, this isn’t even a federalist separate issue, this is a right of privacy.”

Nenshi said he believes it to be one of the largest data breaches in Canadian history, if not the largest.

“Every single one of us should be concerned about this,” he said.

Why did it take so long?

Elections Alberta tells CTV News it is “held to a very high standard” on what it can and cannot investigate, adding that legislation requires that it must have “reasonable grounds to believe an offence has occurred” to start an investigation.

“Either they made a poor judgement call here based on the evidence they were given, or they are so legislatively constrained that they’ve been defanged via legislation,” Gerson said. “Both of those options are problems.

Premier Danielle Smith says her government will look at new legislation depending on what comes out of the investigations.

Smith, in a post on X, said protecting the private information of Albertans is critical. She said those responsible should be held accountable.

“We understand both Elections Alberta and the RCMP are looking into this matter thoroughly and we will wait for the results of those investigations before commenting further and assessing whether any future legislative changes need to be considered,” she said.

The Centurion Project and the Republican Party of Alberta denied interview requests from CTV News on Friday.

In a Thursday news release, The Centurion Project said it was established to “train volunteers to be better citizens by partaking in the political process.”

“Volunteers utilized the Centurion App database to find people they know. They did not have access to phone numbers or emails.”

Both Centurion Project and the Republican Party of Alberta have said they will comply with Elections Alberta’s investigation.

Message from Alberta’s chief electoral officer

After the publication of this article, Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure issued a statement saying the following:

“We are hearing from hundreds of Albertans concerned about the impacts of the unauthorized use of the List of Electors by the Centurion Group Ltd.,” McClure said. “People are unhappy, scared, and anxious about the situation. We have heard countless stories about the risks people face having their information made public, including stories from domestic violence survivors, law enforcement, marginalized communities, and more. We at Elections Alberta hear you, and share your concerns in a very real way. Our staff are among the 2.9 million Albertans who are on the List of Electors. We agree this is an extremely serious situation.

“I issued a cease and desist letter on April 28, 2026, sent representatives to ensure the database was not being accessed at a Centurion Group event on April 29, and had an emergency injunction issued by the Court of King’s Bench on the morning of April 30.

“We are now working closely with law enforcement and other agencies on this matter, and are doing everything we can within the limits of the legislation.”

- With files from The Canadian Press