Lawsuit filed over voter privacy breach affecting almost three million Albertans

A proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed in Alberta after the private information of nearly three million Albertans was allegedly obtained and published by a separatist group.

A statement of claim filed last week in the Court of King’s Bench accuses the Alberta government, its elections agency, and the Republican Party of Alberta of failing to protect the sensitive data.

It also alleges that David Parker, the leader of the separatist group, called the Centurion Project, should have known that his use of the province’s official voter list would put Albertans in harm’s way.

The allegations have not been tested or proven in court, and a judge must certify the proposed class-action lawsuit before it can proceed.

The lawsuit stems from actions taken earlier this year when Alberta elections officials said names and addresses for 2.9 million registered Alberta voters were made available through a public database published by the Centurion Project.

Elections officials got the website taken down in April and the list was traced to the Republican Party, which was legally allowed to have it but prohibited from sharing it with unauthorized groups like the Centurion Project.

Official voter lists also include phone numbers and unique elector identification information.

The elections agency has since said the Centurion Project named 21 individuals as having been given complete copies of the list and 545 who accessed the database while it was active. The agency has said it’s possible that thousands viewed the database.

Those who accessed or used the voter list are named as John Doe defendants in the lawsuit.

The leak is the focus of investigations by the RCMP, Elections Alberta and the provincial privacy watchdog.

The lawyers behind the proposed class action said in a news release Tuesday that the breach put Albertans in danger and was detrimental to public trust.

“If these allegations are proven, this is not just a technical breach — it is a staggering failure that exposes the private lives of nearly three million Albertans to misuse,” said Steven Cooper, with Cooper Regel LLP.

“For vulnerable individuals this kind of exposure is not abstract — it can be dangerous. Albertans deserve answers, accountability and consequences.”

The lead plaintiff is Clint Docken, an Alberta resident and retired lawyer.

The statement of claim also proposes what it calls a subclass of victims who are particularly vulnerable if their private information falls into the wrong hands, including victims of domestic violence, judges, politicians, health-care workers and journalists.

“The breach has exposed millions of Albertans to loss of privacy, misuse of personal information, identity-related risks, profiling, targeting, harassment, and significant distress arising from the loss of control over their personal information,” it says.

The statement of claim says the leak also amounts to a violation of Albertans’ Charter protected rights to privacy and security of the person.

The provincial government, Elections Alberta, the Republican Party of Alberta and a lawyer for David Parker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.