Alberta Prosperity Project power struggle escalates as Chris Scott threatens legal action

CALGARY — The bitter internal dispute within the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP) could be headed to court after Chris Scott, owner of the Whistle Stop Cafe, accused Jeffrey Rath and Mitch Sylvestre of orchestrating a coup and forcing an unauthorized takeover of the organization.In a statement Scott, who says he is an APP director, posted on X on Friday, he stated that the ongoing fallout wasn’t “personal” but was about whether the APP and the Alberta Prosperity Society (APS) follow their own rules.Scott said the bylaws of the APS were signed by its founding directors, which included Rath, and were filed with the Corporate Registry in January 2022.Under the organization’s founding act, “bylaws govern the appointment and removal of directors and officers, and they can only be changed by a 75% special resolution.”He noted that, under the bylaws, no board meeting can conduct business with fewer than five directors present..UPDATED: CIVIL WAR: Rath, Sylvestre accused of betrayal, deception in Alberta independence campaign as APP implodes.Rath was general counsel for the organization, and Scott alleges that, on January 15, 2026, Rath moved to approve the group’s November 2025 minutes by himself.He said that 11 days later, on January 26, 2026, a meeting of three people declared that the board was invalid and installed a new five-person board.“Three is below the five the bylaws require, and the rest of the directors weren’t given notice. By May, General Counsel’s position was that several of us had ‘never been directors.’”Scott maintained the existing board had been conducting business since 2022, including raising and spending money, hiring staff and overseeing the organization’s operations.However, he did acknowledge that changes to the society’s directors had not been properly recorded with the Alberta Corporate Registry..Scott blames Sylvestre for the filing issues, alleging he had failed to sign off on audited financial statements necessary to complete the registry submissions.“He didn’t submit those financials, so the corporate registries would not accept the change of directors submission,” Scott told the Western Standard.Now, he says he is preparing documents for a potential court case to settle the conflict, as he “doesn’t see any other way to resolve it.”In a corporate registry search conducted by the Western Standard on Friday, the Alberta Prosperity Society was listed as having been registered on January 31, 2022, with the date of the last status change listed as April 8, 2025.The list of directors included seven names: Lynn Hambly, Gregory Hartzler, Nicole Kimpton, Robert Patterson, Jeffrey Rath, Carli Sylvestre, and Mitch Sylvestre.The three APS officers listed were Hartzler and both Carli and Mitch Sylvestre..The corporate search also listed May 22, 2026, as the date the last annual return was filed.A change of officer/director/branch for a society was also listed on July 15, 2026, as the most recent activity, but no other specific information was given.Scott pointed to the Societies Act, which provides legal authority for five or more individuals to incorporate a non-profit organization for charitable, educational, religious, or recreational purposes, as the legislation governing the APS.“It says that a society governs itself and deals with its own stuff according to its own bylaws that are submitted to the corporate registry for review before they make the company,” Scott said.“We did that.”.He now alleges Rath and Sylvestre subsequently used the registry discrepancies to their advantage by claiming directors such as Scott and Let Alberta Decide co-founder Tanya Clemens never held director positions, along with others such as Dr. Dennis Modry, Michelle Plante, Kate Graham, Ray Lavoie, and Brandon Pringle.“One of my major issues that led to me actually suggesting that we continue to meet as a board and fire Jeff was because if someone's going to be general counsel for a society, number one, they should, at the very least, be making sure that the society is in proper standing and that the affairs are in order,” Scott said.However, Rath firmly rejected Scott’s accusations when contacted by the Western Standard.“No, the board didn't vote to remove us,” Rath said.“They had an imaginary board meeting attended by imaginary directors. Chris Scott and Tanya [Clemens] are two of them. [Scott] even basically admitted it online. It's like, ‘Well, just 'cause my name isn't listed in the corporate registry doesn't mean I'm not a director.’ Uh, Chris, it does mean that you're not a director. It's just childish nonsense.”Rath also maintained that Scott and other individuals claiming to be directors were not legally recognized by the Corporate Registry and therefore had no authority to remove either him or Sylvestre.He also argued that maintaining the organization’s registry information was the corporate secretary’s responsibility, not his own as general counsel..“Everything got screwed up so badly by the people that were dealing with it that the APS was on the verge of being struck by the corporate registry,” Rath said.“So, everything got fixed and got put back together and lo and behold, Chris and Tanya are not directors.”Speaking at an online APP meeting Thursday night, Sylvestre also denied that he had been fired, saying, “Chris and Tanya have never ever been members of the APS board.”“Just understand this: the fact that they’re saying that they dismissed anybody from the APS board, they had no authority to do it. They cannot do it, and I’m really concerned with the timing of that,” Sylvestre stated, adding that the situation was internal and he would “never have a fight in public about any of our internal stuff.”“I’m going to hold that line. I’m not going to disparage anybody, and not going to do that because that I believe is the whole point here. It’s going to literally make us all look like we’re freaking crazy. You know, we’re having a fight right after a big success. What I thought was a big success. So as a consequence to that, you know what? I’m just going to move forward.”In Scott’s social media statement, he said six of the ten directors attended a September 14 meeting where they voted to terminate Rath as general counsel and Sylvestre as CEO.He added that Rath, Sylvestre, Patterson, and Hartzler were given notice, but didn’t attend..Modry was said to have been appointed interim chair and to have ordered an independent review of the society’s finances covering 2024, 2025, and spring 2026.In a subsequent September 24 meeting, Rath and Sylvestre were removed as directors, but Scott alleges that both men continued to exercise control over the organization’s finances, intellectual property, and communications."What happened in January, Mitch and Jeff took steps to take control of all APS and APP finances, intellectual property, social media, everything, and locked the rest of the board out," Scott alleged.“So they're controlling the society in an illegitimate fashion.”Rath rejected Scott’s claims, asking why the Whistle Stop owner and others such as Clemens would “have access to internal communications when they’re not directors?”He also claimed that the entire debacle was a “distraction” designed to keep people from pushing for a leadership review of Premier Danielle Smith, something Rath has repeatedly stated publicly he is pushing for.“Everybody that's involved with this is basically supporters of Danielle Smith and don't want there to be a leadership review,” he stated..MORGAN: Reviewing the Alberta Prosperity Project's proposed Alberta constitution.“Let's get all the independence folks scrapping in the parking lot so that Danielle and all of the people that have actually caused the problems can sneak away behind the cloud of dust while everybody's watching the brawl in the parking lot. It's just stupid.”Going forward, Rath believes the independence movement will remain a significant political force capable of organizing hundreds of thousands of Albertans."We're a viable political force that's capable of organizing hundreds of thousands of people, which is the last thing Danielle wants when she's been so weakened politically," he said.While Scott acknowledged that members of the disputed board held differing views regarding Smith’s leadership, he stated that the ongoing conflict was not about protecting the premier.“There were some people on the board that agreed that Danielle Smith needed a leadership review. There were some that didn't agree that she did,” he said, adding that the APP and APS had a specific purpose — education.“What we're seeing is a blatant disregard for what the members signed up for and what they fundraised for. Mitch and Jeff are using this organization that thousands of people have put thousands of hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars in as a political weapon to satisfy their vendetta against Smith.”

Alberta Prosperity Project power struggle escalates as Chris Scott threatens legal action

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