CALGARY — The fallout from the Alberta independence referendum has escalated as a bitter internal struggle has erupted within the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), with Chris Scott, owner of the Whistle Stop Cafe and an APP director, publicly announcing that the organization’s board removed Jeffrey Rath and Mitch Sylvestre in September.In a post on X and in an explosive video he released on his Facebook account Thursday, Scott accused Rath and Sylvestre of mismanagement, ignoring board authority and undermining the independence campaign..“I had sincerely hoped that this matter could be resolved privately. In the interest of protecting the integrity and unity of Alberta’s independence and sovereignty movements, every effort was made to reach a resolution behind closed doors,” Scott wrote.“Unfortunately, those efforts have been unsuccessful. It is therefore with profound disappointment and reluctance that I find it necessary to issue this public notice to the members of the Alberta Prosperity Project.”In a separate notice posted by Scott, it was stated that the APP board voted to terminate Rath as legal counsel and Sylvestre as chief executive officer, citing cause.At a subsequent meeting on September 24, the board removed the pair as directors.“Neither Jeffrey Rath nor Mitch Sylvestre has authority to act for or represent the Alberta Prosperity Project (Alberta Prosperity Society),” the notice stated.Scott told viewers in his Facebook video that the decisions followed months of internal disagreements over the APP’s leadership, finances and preparations for the October 19 referendum.The Whistle Stop Cafe owner said he pushed to have Sylvestre replaced in January due to conflicts involving Sylvestre’s other group, Stay Free Alberta — the organization behind the independence petition..“There's a rumour going around that it was Dennis Modry or Keith Wilson or all these other people that coordinated this. If you wanna know who was identifying the necessity of having a new CEO with the Alberta Prosperity Project, it was me,” Scott said.“As a director in the society, my job was to make sure that the project was proceeding according to the mission and vision that were laid out in the bylaws and was being done according to the bylaws.”He went on to claim that he had also identified a politically connected grassroots leader — whom he did not name — who could have taken over the APP and strengthened the independence campaign, but the individual refused to be involved while Rath and Sylvestre were in leadership roles.Scott then pointed out that many people, including himself, had criticized Rath’s social media activity and public appearances.“I have a ton of respect for Jeff, but I think he's been wrong a lot.I think it was wrong of him to not temper his social media and work towards a goal in a way that people could get behind," Scott stated."Jeff was a leader, and there were mistakes made. You should be able to rely on the people around you to help correct that to the best goal. That didn't happen. We tried, and we tried, and we tried. As a matter of fact, Mitch tried as well. Nobody could get him to back down. Nobody could get him to agree to work towards this common goal, and it turned out badly.”.In response to Scott's message, Rath said that neither he nor Tanya Clemens, co-leader of Let Alberta Decide were "lawfully registered as board members at the time these imaginary board meetings were held.".In a follow-up post, Rath also said Scott wasn't a director and to "get over it."According to Scott, disagreements intensified when he and other APP directors began demanding a clear, concrete strategy for the period following the independence petition’s signature-gathering phase and leading up to the referendum vote.He alleged that Rath and Sylvestre told several directors they had never legally been part of the board because changes to the society's director registrations had not been filed with the proper Alberta registries.“Instead of working together and relying on the people that had all the best intentions for Alberta and the Alberta Prosperity Project, we held a board meeting in which Mitch told me and others on the board, and Jeff told us, that we were never on the board,” Scott said..Rath denies allegations of wrongdoing amidst a misappropriated funds dispute with an Alberta First Nation .“Because Mitch had failed to sign off on the audited financials and submit them to registries in Alberta, the changes of directors over the last two previous years hadn't been completed... They locked us out of everything, all the intellectual property, our emails, finances, everything.”The APP’s handling of the referendum campaign also came under attack, as Scott argued that the leadership had failed to organize any meaningful campaign involving advertising and public outreach after the petition phase ended.“I watched in horror, absolute horror, for five weeks as nothing happened,” Scott said, adding that “nobody did anything” until the Western Standard’s Cory Morgan started his third-party advertising campaign and began putting out signs.“The ball was dropped in such a way that it probably lost this referendum. The whole time, I'd been confiding in people about what was going on and how we would deal with it, and the comment I got was, ‘Just worry about unity. Don't talk about these things.’ Well, here we are.”Another concern raised was how the APP’s membership information was handled after Scott and other directors allegedly lost access to the group’s systems.Scott claimed that political operatives hired by Sylvestre were given access to the APP’s membership lists and digital infrastructure, including its database and website, while longtime volunteers were locked out..'One disappointment after another': Sylvestre frustrated by Smith's independence referendum question .“A small group of people started using a giant members list and fundraising as a political weapon against Danielle Smith,” he said.“Instead of talking about these things, this plan to remove the problem was concocted, and I will quote Mitch here, ‘I was tired of trouble with the board. I saw an opportunity to get rid of you, and I took it.’”One of the people allegedly involved, according to Scott, was Jenny Walker, former Wexit Alberta board chair.“Jenny tried to sell the Wexit [members] list to APP, and Jeff knew that. Mitch knew that.We turned them down, but she made the offer, and then Mitch hired her," he said.Scott maintains that the decisions concerning access to the APP membership database and the hiring of outside agents were made without approval from the APP board.He also said that he plans to release some “pretty nasty recordings” of meetings involving the APP board, Rath, and Sylvestre in the near future to substantiate his claims.“I'm going to resolve this, it has to be done,” he said.“At the end of the day, a couple people pushed out those who were working really, really hard trying to ensure that everything was done properly and that we would win, and we have what we have today because of that. Sucks, doesn't it?”The Western Standard has reached out to both Rath and Sylvestre for comment.
