Elections Alberta says Centurion Project founder ‘not cooperating’ with its investigation
Posted May 12, 2026 8:44 am.
Last Updated May 13, 2026 8:51 am.
The founder of a pro-separatist group in Alberta that’s been accused of publishing the personal information of nearly three million Albertans to an online database is allegedly “not cooperating” with at least one of the investigations into the breach.
Elections Alberta, which is one of three bodies investigating the alleged leak of the province’s entire electoral list, says Centurion Project founder David Parker is not being helpful in the election agency’s probe.
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“I can confirm David Parker is not cooperating with the investigation and he has refused to sign a statutory declaration confirming that he will comply with my Direction to cease and desist with respect to the list of electors,” Elections Alberta’s chief electoral officer Gordon McClure told CityNews in a statement Tuesday morning.
Late Tuesday night, a lawyer representing Parker said his client was asked to sign the statutory declaration “under explicit threat of a court injunction.”
“In plain terms, the state is attempting to use civil proceedings to compel sworn evidence from a citizen while a penal investigation is actively underway,” wrote Chad Williamson. “This is an unconstitutional end-run around the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
Williamson says his office notified McClure on May 7 that Parker would not be signing the document.
“Once an investigation crosses into penal territory, the regulatory power to compel these kinds of sworn statements is constitutionally suspended,” the lawyer wrote.
“Asserting fundamental constitutional rights against state overreach is not defiance — it is the bedrock of our justice system. We do not advise clients to walk into unconstitutional traps.”
In an X post on May 2, Parker intimated he would be complying with Elections Alberta to prove “many of the crazy allegations flying around false.”
The online database was taken down two weeks ago following a court order. The RCMP and Alberta’s privacy commissioner have announced separate investigations into the breach.
Elections Alberta believes 568 people accessed the voter list at the heart of the privacy breach.
The database was traced back to an official voter list Elections Alberta had legally distributed to the pro-independence Republican Party of Alberta. Voter lists are only distributed to elected officials, political parties and party officials and can’t be shared with third parties.
Investigators acting on information from an anonymous tipster probed the database published by the Centurion Project and matched the fake names to a list given to the Republican Party in 2025, according to a lawyer for the Alberta elections agency.
Elections Alberta says cease-and-desist letters were issued to people the Centurion Project says accessed the list. The letter says Parker is required to sign a statement declaring he would stop using the official voter list.
‘Evil institution’
Parker, a longtime political organizer in the province, has had a combative history with Elections Alberta.
Last year, the agency gave a $120,000 fine to another political activist group run by Parker called Take Back Alberta for breaching electoral financing rules, including knowingly making false statements on financial reports.
At the time, Parker called the penalties politically motivated “lawfare” and denied any wrongdoing.
And on social media last month, before the investigations into the Centurion Project were announced, Parker called Elections Alberta an “evil institution.”
“I will not rest until everyone responsible for the lawfare being waged out of that den of evil are brought to justice,” he said.
The Centurion Project has said it relied on an unnamed third party for its database, while the Republican Party has denied wrongdoing. Elections Alberta has said how the list changed hands was unclear.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on the morning of May 13 after CityNews received a statement from David Parker’s lawyer, Chad Williamson, late on May 12.
