EDMONTON— The Republican Party of Alberta said it granted access to Alberta's List of Electors to vendors contracted to conduct party business, as allowed under the Election Act, but rescinded it after learning of its alleged misuse by The Centurion Project. "As all parties do, we conduct voter ID, contacting electors, solicitation of donors and promoting the party to permitted electoral Data," reads a statement from RPA Leader Cameron Davies emailed to the Western Standard on Friday. "This can be done through third parties as well as directly from the party." Davies's party has quickly become wrapped in a scandal after news broke on Thursday about an alleged misuse of Alberta's electoral list by The Centurion Project, after Elections Alberta traced the breach back to a copy of the list issued to the RPA. Elections Alberta told the Western Standard that political parties may contract out some authorized tasks that require access to the List of Electors, but Third Party Advertisers, which The Centurion Project is, are not eligible to receive copies of the list at any time. "It is the authorized recipients’ responsibility to ensure the proper safeguards are in place to ensure they comply with section 19.1 of the legislation," reads an email Elections Alberta sent to the Western Standard. "Authorized recipients must sign agreements they will use it only as permitted by law.""The Republican Party of Alberta (RPA) is responsible for misuse of a list by a third party contracted to perform only the activities permitted by the legislation on their behalf. If that third party was engaged by the RPA to do any work using the List of Electors that is not expressly permitted by the Elections Act, RPA is also in breach of the legislation."Davies told the Western Standard that his party issued an immediate cease-and-desist order to all party vendors who had been granted access to the list. .Elections Alberta initiated an inquiry into The Centurion Project on Monday after receiving a tip that the group may have extracted data from the List of Electors to help build the database for their website, which coordinates their Alberta independence advocacy efforts.They conducted their inquiry on Monday and Tuesday before finding reason to believe the group may have accessed data from a list traced back to the RPA.Court of King's Bench Justice John Little issued an injunction on Thursday directing The Centurion Project to remove all information from the electors' list on its website, and for The Centurion Project and the RPA to stop distributing any information from the list to individuals.RPA and The Centurion Project were also given four days to supply a list and contact information for every individual who may have received information from the List of Electors.Elections Albert continues to investigate the RPA's role in the alleged misuse of the List of Electors to the extent that it falls under the Elections Act, and the Alberta RCMP have launched a criminal investigation into the alleged privacy breach."We have not been contacted by the RCMP, but will assist and comply with any and all investigations by Elections Alberta or the RCMP," Davies told the Western Standard..The electoral office said it will work with appropriate agencies to complete the investigations, which may or may not include the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta.The OIPCA issued a statement on Friday stating that the RFA's potential role in this privacy case falls outside its jurisdiction, as the Personal Information Protection Act does not apply to political parties."My office does not have jurisdiction over personal information contained in the List of Electors that may have been disclosed by a political party," reads comments from Commissioner Diane McLeod. "This is because the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) does not apply to political parties.""As this matter unfolds, we will continue to work to determine whether we have jurisdiction over The Centurion Project. If so, I will investigate to determine whether any violations of PIPA occurred in acquiring the personal information and making it publicly accessible.”McLeod said the potential breach of information is highly concerning, and their limited involvement points out a flaw: the protections for personal information in the List of Electors under the Elections Act lack the strength of those in the PIPA."This gap has been recognized by my office, which has been calling for PIPA to be amended to include political parties for decades," McLeod wrote. "During the PIPA review, which is still underway, we renewed the call for political parties to be made subject to the Act."
