Security experts warn 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 with ramifications for decades.
Personal information could be used by criminals for fraud, extortion, kidnapping, and witness tampering. Authoritarian regimes like Russia or China could use the data to interfere in Alberta's politics by directly contacting voters.
Both Elections Alberta and the RCMP have launched separate investigations into how the private information from Alberta's official List of Electors ended up posted online by the Centurion Project. The group allegedly accessed the database provided to the Republican Party of Alberta.
Former RCMP major crimes investigator Neil LeMay said for organized crime, that kind of information is gold-a criminal Rolodex that can be weaponized for decades. Patrick Lennox, former RCMP criminal intelligence manager, warned that authoritarian regimes could micro-target individuals to influence a separatist vote.
The data leak also threatens the safety of police, politicians, judges, journalists, and doctors.
Alberta's separatist group Stay Free Alberta is expected to present a petition to trigger a referendum on independence. Premier Danielle Smith's government has already scheduled a provincewide vote on Oct. 19.
Independent journalist Jeremy Appel first broke the story. The Centurion Project, created by political operative David Parker, used the data to build an app for recruiting separatist supporters.
Elections Alberta traced the leak to the Republican Party of Alberta. Commissioner Paula Hale initially said evidence was insufficient to investigate. The Alberta NDP is now calling for the chief electoral officer to explain the delayed response.