EDMONTON — The Centurion Project leader, David Parker, has not responded to a request for comment on Tuesday following reports of him refusing to co-operate with Elections Alberta's investigation into the project's alleged misuse of Alberta's electoral list. "I can confirm David Parker is not cooperating with the investigation and he has refused to sign a statutory declaration confirming that he will comply with my direction to cease and desist with respect to the list of electors,” reads a statement from Chief Electoral Officer Gordon McClure written for The Globe and Mail on Monday.The Centurion Project previously said it intended to cooperate with both the RCMP and Elections Alberta's investigations into whether Parker's group used a copy of Alberta's List of Electors to help compile its public database of Alberta electors. "The Centurion Project plan to fully comply with Elections Alberta’s investigation," reads a statement from The Centurion Project on April 30.The Western Standard attempted to contact Parker on Tuesday to request a comment on the allegations of his uncooperation, but he failed to respond before the noon deadline. .Elections Alberta received its first notification of the alleged misuse by The Centurion Project on March 31, but could not identify sufficient evidence to initiate a formal investigation. They were notified again on April 27 and began a formal investigation before issuing an initial cease-and-desist notice to Centurion Project leaders on April 28, and hand-delivering a second notice on April 29. Elections Alberta investigation attached the Republican Party of Alberta to the scandal, after tracing a collection of names in The Centurion Project's database back to "salted" names found in a copy of the electoral list issued to the party. Republican Party of Alberta Leader Cameron Davies told the Western Standard on May 1 that his group had given a "third party" conducting business on their behalf access to their copy of the list, but retracted that access after learning of the alleged misuse. "We have not been contacted by the RCMP, but will assist and comply with any and all investigations by Elections Alberta or the RCMP," wrote Davies..Court of King's Bench Justice John Little issued a court order for The Centurion Project to remove its database from its website, and for them and the Republican Party of Alberta to cease and desist from disseminating or using information from the electors list. Little also ordered the groups to submit a list of all individuals who had access to the list and may have received information from it. Parker's project identified 23 individuals who received a copy of the electoral list and 545 people who had access to it. Individuals who received a copy of the list have 48 hours to sign a declaration that they followed Elections Alberta's directions. .The Centurion Project claims to have relied on a "third party" to provide information for their database and, prior to word of the alleged misuse circulating, Parker said they legally acquired data from sources such as website scraping, purchasing lists from Canada Post, and 411. Some Alberta independence advocates have attempted to distance Parker from the movement, criticizing his alleged illegal actions and asserting that he is a single actor unassociated with Stay Free Alberta. Stay Free Alberta CEO Mitch Sylvestre claims Parker approached him and offered the use of The Centurion Project's database, but he immediately declined after sensing something nefarious was happening with it. Other independence advocates have dismissed and minimized the allegations against Parker, claiming the information came from a phone book. The Alberta RCMP and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta are also conducting investigations into The Centurion Project's alleged misuse of the electoral list.
