‘A new low’: Former Alberta premier weighs in on electors list breach as hundreds of cease and desist letters sent out

Alberta's elections watchdog is trying to stop the spread of nearly three million voters' personal information. Former premier Jason Kenney is one of them.

As Elections Alberta sends out 568 cease and desist letters related to Alberta’s list of electors, one targeted former politician is calling for “serious consequences.”

Jason Kenney’s personal information was searched and accessed by separatist group The Centurion Project in one of its April meetings.

He tells CTV News he’s been threatened many times before, but the group making his address and phone number public is a new low.

“When I saw that they specifically brought up and shared my name, I regarded that as borderline incitement,” he said Thursday.

“I’m not somebody who lives in fear, but I’m taking some reasonable precautions, and I’m consulting with the appropriate authorities.”

Kenney believes it’s the same anti-vaccine crowd that was against him during the pandemic who have now shifted their focus to separation.

“Most of these are just keyboard warriors that are annoying but harmless. But it just takes one person who takes that stuff too far. So I take this seriously.”

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi alerted Kenney to the leak.

The former premier has since consulted with private legal counsel on whether he can bring an action against The Centurion Project “for the violation of my privacy and the threat and the cost that it implies.”

“I’ll be blunt,” Kenney said, “I hope that there are serious consequences for those responsible. I think a lot of these separatist organizations have been playing fast and loose with the rules for far too long, getting away with too much.”

“They need to be reminded that this is a a country with rules and laws, and that one of those is personal privacy.”

And aside from his own personal potential legal action, Kenney won’t rule out becoming part of a larger class action suit, should one be filed.

One lawyer believes that’s just a matter of time.

Major elections breach

On Thursday, Elections Alberta confirmed to CTV News that more than 560 people accessed the renegade voter database.

It believes 23 people were given full copies of the list, while another 545 accessed it through an online tool The Centurion Project made publicly available.

Cease and desist letters were issued to all 568 individuals Wednesday night.

The 23 people who were provided the list are required to provide a signed declaration they have complied with the direction.

They have 48 hours to comply.

The separatist group has said its goal was to identify and recruit as many supporters of Alberta independence as possible ahead of an expected referendum this fall.

Voter list access

The data dump has sparked calls for legislative change.

One request — pushed by a handful of political watchers and voters — is to renegotiate how the electors list is distributed.

The Republican Party of Alberta’s list was either given, sold or leaked to The Centurion Project. Some question why a fringe party with no sitting MLAs had that information in the first place.

“Maybe if you’re going to get access to the full voter list, you should have to put down a good behavior bond,” Kenney said. “A million bucks or something.”

“I’m absolutely open to looking at recommendations for how to improve these privacy protections for Albertans,” Nenshi added. “Maybe it’s time for us to look at the rules again, because they clearly have no respect for them.“

The current argument in favour of wider distribution is to keep democracy open and competitive. Access to the list gives smaller parties some of the same information larger parties already possess.

It allows all involved to attempt to canvas and attract voters on a similar playing field, regardless of political donations.

Meanwhile, the Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner announced Thursday it launched an investigation into the breach.

The investigation’s chief purpose will examine whether the Centurion Project is in violation of the Personal Information Protection Act, should the investigation find that the group accessed voter data from the elector list.