All Things AB Separatism (split fm Liberal Minority Government 2025 - ???)

[MilEME09]

Thanks to the law that was changed last year by Smith and the UCP.

You could almost think this was planned.

Amendment to Alberta election law hindered probe into alleged misuse of data, watchdog says

Elections Alberta faced criticism for not acting on information that a separatist group may have had unauthorized access to electors list

www.theglobeandmail.com

Archive

Can the feds nuke that law still using disallowance?

 

[The Bread Guy]

Can the feds nuke that law still using disallowance?

Even if they could, would that be their best option, optically even if it's letter-of-the-law correct?

 

[MilEME09]

Even if they could, would that be their best option, optically even if it's letter-of-the-law correct?

Arguement could be made there is the need to restore power and confidence in Elections Alberta, and give power back to the people to remove their names if it has been added without their consent in light of this breach

 

[brihard]

Arguement could be made there is the need to restore power and confidence in Elections Alberta, and give power back to the people to remove their names if it has been added without their consent in light of this breach

Properly this should be resolved by the provincial government. Ultimately, though, the petition leads to a potential referendum question; at that point everyone gets to cast their vote and nuke the whole thing incontrovertibly.

The Feds invoking a long-dormant power to suppress provincial legislation on election integrity would play right into the separatists’ hands.

 

[MilEME09]

Properly this should be resolved by the provincial government. Ultimately, though, the petition leads to a potential referendum question; at that point everyone gets to cast their vote and nuke the whole thing incontrovertibly.

The Feds invoking a long-dormant power to suppress provincial legislation on election integrity would play right into the separatists’ hands.

From the way it reads, killing Bill 25 would increase integrity. Many judges and lawyers warned this could happen

 

[brihard]

From the way it reads, killing Bill 25 would increase integrity. Many judges and lawyers warned this could happen

I like what Jen Gerson said yesterday on The Line. Kill the petitions, and let the separatists form a provincial party and run on it as a platform like the PQ did. Demonstrate democratic legitimacy that way.

 

[Altair]

I like what Jen Gerson said yesterday on The Line. Kill the petitions, and let the separatists form a provincial party and run on it as a platform like the PQ did. Demonstrate democratic legitimacy that way.

They already have a separatists party. The UCP

 

[RangerRay]

A bit more "told ya so" from The Line reporter who gave EA a head's up 31 March.

SCOOP: Jen Gerson: Elections Alberta's massive failure could have put people in danger. I tried to warn them.

The most unhinged people in the province may now have access to the personal information of everybody who lives here, and there's nothing we can do about it

www.readtheline.ca

Archived link.

Not so much “I told you so” but more “I told you over a month ago, you blew me off, then when you do investigate your timeline starts weeks after I reported it to you. Fuck you and the donkey you rode in on”.

 

[GK .Dundas]

Silly tantrums are fine, but sometimes they happen at the wrong time and have unintended consequences...

Like I said, in 2019 it would be amusing, now I have some concerns that our southern neighbour will use the referendum as a pretext to openly interfere in our politics/governance.

jpkpl9

Not so much “I told you so” but more “I told you over a month ago, you blew me off, then when you do investigate your timeline starts weeks after I reported it to you. Fuck you and the donkey you rode in on”.

Good for her !
Quit frankly there should be people's heads on pikes for this.
Somebody's joyfully fucking over democracy and the best that the people who are supposably protecting the system can do is ....next to nothing ?

 

[MilEME09]

Not so much “I told you so” but more “I told you over a month ago, you blew me off, then when you do investigate your timeline starts weeks after I reported it to you. Fuck you and the donkey you rode in on”.

It really begs the question, what changed in 1 month considering the nature of the information posted online didnt

 

[Retired AF Guy]

jpkpl9
Good for her !
Quit frankly there should be people's heads on pikes for this.
Somebody's joyfully fucking over democracy and the best that the people who are supposably protecting the system can do is ....next to nothing ?

I thought the RCMP were investigating?

 

[MilEME09]

Well this wont look good for separatists, Edmonton woman fleeing domestic violence needs relocating after her information released by the centurion project.

Mark Carney calls alleged privacy breach in Alberta deeply concerning

An Edmonton city councillor says he and his team are helping a woman facing intimate partner violence relocate with her children after her address was leaked in an alleged privacy breach by a separatist group.

www.ctvnews.ca

 

[Altair]

Well this wont look good for separatists, Edmonton woman fleeing domestic violence needs relocating after her information released by the centurion project.

Mark Carney calls alleged privacy breach in Alberta deeply concerning

An Edmonton city councillor says he and his team are helping a woman facing intimate partner violence relocate with her children after her address was leaked in an alleged privacy breach by a separatist group.

www.ctvnews.ca

Tragic. So we can add women dying to domestic violence to the list of things Alberta separatists do differently to their Quebec counterparts.

 

[Furniture]

Tragic. So we can add women dying to domestic violence to the list of things Alberta separatists do differently to their Quebec counterparts.

That is unhelpful and inflammatory.

I suppose Alberta separatists still have to get to kidnapping, murder, and terrorism to equal their counterparts in Quebec by your logic.

 

[Altair]

That is unhelpful and inflammatory.

I suppose Alberta separatists still have to get to kidnapping, murder, and terrorism to equal their counterparts in Quebec by your logic.

Give them time.

 

[MilEME09]

That is unhelpful and inflammatory.

I suppose Alberta separatists still have to get to kidnapping, murder, and terrorism to equal their counterparts in Quebec by your logic.

What it does highlight however is every domestic violence victim, RCMP, city police, CSIS, CAF, and government officials had their name and address public for a whole month. I find it likely that it was picked up by another gov, intelligence agency or criminal organizations as well.

Depending how deep this goes, theres some federal laws that might apply here as well.

 

[Altair]

What it does highlight however is every domestic violence victim, RCMP, city police, CSIS, CAF, and government officials had their name and address public for a whole month. I find it likely that it was picked up by another gov, intelligence agency or criminal organizations as well.

Depending how deep this goes, theres some federal laws that might apply here as well.

The fact that people are not outraged by this baffles me.

They just doxxed an entire Canadian province.

 

[Furniture]

What it does highlight however is every domestic violence victim, RCMP, city police, CSIS, CAF, and government officials had their name and address public for a whole month. I find it likely that it was picked up by another gov, intelligence agency or criminal organizations as well.

Depending how deep this goes, theres some federal laws that might apply here as well.

Fair, it seems like a bunch of amateurs made a massive mistake that potentially has massive consequences. I have serious doubts that it was done maliciously, but regardless of intent it has already had negative consequences for some.

The people who organized this massive breech of privacy need to be investigated and charged if appropriate.

The fact that people are not outraged by this baffles me.

They just doxxed an entire Canadian province.

People often forgive the transgressions of their political tribe... It's not new, and it isn't limited to one group.

 

[Blackadder1916]

It really begs the question, what changed in 1 month considering the nature of the information posted online didnt

While I can understand the sense of incredulity that the journalist (and some on this forum) has concerning the initial response of the Election Commissioner to her complaint and the time gap before action was eventually taken, a reading of the complaint/investigation process on the Elections Alberta site should be in order.

Investigations - Elections Alberta

Complaints Jurisdiction of complaints we handle and how to submit a complaint. Investigation Process How investigations are conducted by the Election Commissioner Disclosure When is information collected during an investigation disclosed? Public and media enquiries about investigations...

www.elections.ab.ca

A couple of extracts from different pages.

To initiate an investigation, the Election Commissioner must have “reasonable grounds to believe” an infraction has occurred. This is a high threshold. Courts have described this threshold to mean a set of circumstances, which, assuming them to be true, would lead a reasonable person to the conclusion the breach had occurred.

This means information and evidence must be provided with complaints to allow the Election Commissioner to start an investigation. An allegation or speculation alone does not meet this threshold.

The Election Commissioner conducts an analysis of each complaint to determine whether the complaint falls within the Election Commissioner’s jurisdiction and, if it does, to determine whether there are reasonable grounds to initiate an investigation.

Any person or entity who is the subject of an investigation is notified of the substance of the allegations against them.

Once approved by the Election Commissioner, investigations are conducted by Elections Alberta’s Compliance and Enforcement team.

@brihard (who, IIRC, has previously commented on "reasonable" several times in other threads) did so again here.

A threshold of “reasonable grounds to believe” there is already an offence under the Election Act to even investigate is absolutely insane. That’s the threshold we as police use for things like search warrants or laying charges. We aren’t at all constrained from investigating allegations by language like that. Why in the hell did the provincial government change that in just the past couple years? It utterly hobbles enforcement.

Miss Gerson, as a journalist, unlike the Election Commissioner, was not constrained by the Elections Act into investigating looking into allegations that the Centurion Project database had been compiled from the list of electors. And, as obvious as it may seem that the source of that database must have been the list of electors, her complaint was still speculation.

This is not the first time in Alberta politics that a list of electors became an issue in an election, though previously it was at the municipal level, specifically the 2021 Calgary election. In order to keep from providing a list of voters (which included the names and addresses of AHS employees who were threatened) from a fringe candidate for mayor (he was the one doing the threatening), the city council had to change the rules and not compile a voters list for that election. They couldn't exclude that individual from the ballot, nor could they not provide him with a voters list if he was running. The only option was to not have a voters list.

 

[HavokFour]

I wonder how many other third parties may have been given access to the lists that shouldn't, we only know about Centurion Project because they unintentionally or not made the data public.