00:01:46.820But the alleged leaking of the Alberta list of electors through the Republican Party of Alberta to a group called the Centurion Project, and that the Centurion Project posted this, made it available online, a huge data breach.
00:02:09.880We'll talk a bit about the substance of it, but also what are the political consequences of it?
00:02:14.800The opponents of Alberta independence have certainly seized upon this to try to discredit the independence movement.
00:02:23.280They've tried to affiliate the entire movement with those who are alleged to have been behind the data breach.
00:02:32.300Is this going to potentially derail the pending Alberta independence referendum that supposedly is supposed to come this fall?
00:02:41.680uh but i guess the good news for the independence uh movement before that cory uh just uh was it
00:02:50.880monday monday um the uh state free alberta the registered uh organization that was collecting
00:02:59.060the signatures to for a citizens initiative referendum on alberta independence they officially
00:09:44.840Unless something will change based on the question asked, it's just a pull.
00:09:50.220You know, it doesn't matter what the results are.
00:09:52.120It could be 80% one side or 80% the other.
00:09:54.840Nothing changes whatsoever based on his question, which makes it utterly pointless.
00:10:01.100It was like the daylight savings question we had back in like 2023 or 2022 or whatever.
00:10:06.900Even then, if people had taken one side definitively, something would have changed.
00:10:10.520What with his is saying, okay, do you want to vote?
00:10:13.560Everybody, let's just keep things the same.
00:10:15.160Okay, if the yes side wins that, everything stays the same.
00:10:17.400If the no side wins it, everything stays the same because it's still not a constitutionally valid question through that process on it.
00:10:25.480So, you know, as we said, no matter what side of it you're on, that won't settle it, that won't have this issue out.
00:10:32.520This needs to be, I think, if we really want to put this to bed one way or another, it has to be the valid question with constitutional teeth.
00:10:38.840Well, even if the courts do disallow the Citizens Initiative question from State Free Alberta, the one asking Alberta should be an independent country, but Thomas Lukasics is for some reason allowed to go ahead, even though it's ostensibly kind of the same thing, but not.
00:10:58.220The way the legislation is set up is that then the question is reviewed by the legislature and the cabinet, and they have the opportunity to amend it.
00:11:06.720Now, it's important that that power should not be abused.
00:11:10.960But, I mean, you know, say someone put forward a Susan's Initiative question here, but the question was not fair or neutral.
00:13:02.440That's just what I'm saying is it's going to have to clarify one way or another.
00:13:07.300Part of the legislation, actually, though, does require that the legislature and the cabinet are supposed to make sure we don't have redundant questions.
00:13:16.660You know, like imagine if, you know, everyone was really hopped up on, say, daylight savings time.
00:13:22.600And you had like, you know, different versions of the question, kind of more somewhat asking the same thing.
00:13:30.020And then you would daylight savings time was kind of a confusing thing to me.
00:13:33.040I actually don't think it should have been put to a referendum there.
00:13:35.700There was I was like, no, experts make a decision.
00:13:40.400But, you know, if you have the contradictory questions, the legislation says that the legislature and the cabinet are supposed to sort it out so that we don't have a bunch of redundant or contradictory questions.
00:15:08.640Okay. Well, flowing very neatly from this is our very lazily titled next segment, Listgate.
00:15:19.340Yeah, I really do. We're a part of the problem. We're part of the problem, guys.
00:15:25.800When the media is too lazy or uncreative to come up with a scandal name, we add Gate to the end.
00:15:32.700But in this case, we really didn't have much time, I guess.
00:15:35.800So what is alleged to have happened, I think most people watching will have read or heard at least some of it, is Elections Alberta provides total lists of all the electors in Alberta.
00:15:50.620I think it's roughly 2.8 million around there right now.
00:15:54.560These lists are provided to all the political parties, and on a local level, they could be provided to local candidates running.
00:16:00.920But there's strict rules around how, you know, they're not allowed to share them.
00:16:07.980Now, there is some stuff around third-party vendors who can do work for them.
00:16:16.940What's alleged to have happened here is that the Republican Party of Alberta,
00:16:20.260which is an independent-supporting political party, led by Cam Davies.
00:16:26.340That's someone that, at least Corey and I, we, you know, dealt with in the past in our time with Wild Rose and the United Conservative Party and things like this.
00:16:37.980It's alleged that they had provided the list of electors to something called the Centurion Project, which is led by David Parker.
00:16:47.540Also someone who we've known and worked with in previous political lives here.
00:16:52.620um and that the centurion project which is i guess kind of jumped in to the independence
00:17:00.460movement that's going on here they had an app and the app had the full list of electors in it
00:17:06.580and i guess it was not built very safely as i'm understanding this and that it was possible for
00:17:12.820someone to go into that app and then obtain the entire list of electors of alberta including
00:17:17.880their personal information their address all of this and you know it's some people have tried to
00:17:27.000play this down it's not a big deal in one sense i get that uh been around politics these lists do
00:17:33.340get around they're not as confidential as you think but generally people who are playing around
00:17:38.900this these lists don't post it online for the world to see and and that's really where they
00:17:45.340They appear to have lost the plot here.
00:17:48.940I guess we'll talk about the political fallout of this for the independence movement in a moment.
00:17:55.220But Corey, first, you know, your thoughts on the credibility of the accusations, you know, and how serious an issue is this?
00:18:05.820Sure. And I think, yeah, Nigel's going to break down a little more about the legislation on the act and so on.
00:18:09.600just to point out one thing I like people wondering though if it's you know questionable
00:18:14.640evidence or things like that and everything and I know we can't fully condemn until things have
00:18:18.400been investigated but I just want to quickly explain salted lists because non-political
00:18:22.340people I don't think most people get that what that is so when they give those lists out to
00:18:26.180different parties and individuals they will throw a few identifiers in there usually false names
00:18:30.960people that don't exist whatever and it'll be unique to each list that's given out so that way
00:18:35.340two things can happen with fake phone numbers and fake emails yeah so if those names pop
00:18:40.600anywhere they're unique you know where it came from the second thing is if they pop anywhere
00:18:47.020whoever has it even if it wasn't from the original source you know that this source has
00:18:51.440accessed an electoral list so it's pretty cut and dry by the looks of things with what they
00:18:57.940presented to get the injunction elections alberta went in and checked it they concluded it's an
00:19:03.920electoral list that's in the Centurion Project, which there's two problems there. One, they
00:19:08.540shouldn't even have it in the first place. Two, they sure as heck shouldn't have it so that others
00:19:12.860can access it. So we've got two problems there, and they did conclude it came from the Republican
00:19:19.080Party. Now there's a whole lot of explaining to do, I guess, on the part of Davies and Parker as
00:19:23.020to how this all happened. That'll be the part of the investigation, but it's looking pretty darn
00:19:27.300clear that this happened the problem now the political problem is people don't in at large
00:19:34.180don't see the six or seven different independence groups and actions and things that are moving
00:19:38.100around out there they just see an independence movement and they're seeing that this breach
00:19:43.860came from this movement may have endangered people legacy media is jumping all over it the the best
00:19:49.620example i saw already they were reporting on apparently a a woman who was afraid of uh
00:19:54.020an ex who was a spousal abuser who tried to keep her location discreet now fears so badly that her
00:20:03.020ex maybe had accessed the list through that and got her address that she has to move i don't know
00:20:08.620if it's anecdotal or whatever but it does actually still illustrate the gravity of sharing people's
00:20:13.000personal information and how badly it can go yeah uh so the centurion project here was not a part
00:27:20.260And they've handed him a political cudgel.
00:27:22.120The problem is when some of the conversation, though, I guess what Dave and I are kind of chipping to, when people say, though, well, what was wrong?
00:27:27.540What was done to Kenny was wrong, but, well, there doesn't need to be a but in this conversation, right?
00:27:38.140Yours, mine, Dave, Nigel's, everyone watching here who lives in Alberta.
00:27:41.800Some of the maps who send us threats might have been logged into Centurion and found our home addresses, and it's a real concern.
00:27:47.320And the other thing, if it hands Jason Kenney a cudgel, it also hands him a loudspeaker.
00:27:52.640He's going off to Ryerson University to, what do they call it now, Toronto Metropolitan,
00:27:57.680a big event there about disinformation.
00:28:02.460This isn't disinformation, but he can certainly talk about it there to a national audience.
00:28:07.860You know, we've got people in Alberta, this is the kind of thing they do.
00:28:11.660And he will make himself a national hero.
00:28:16.200I suspect that that might, I mean, he couldn't have orchestrated this, but he's certainly going to use it, in my opinion, to Mr. Kenney, would like to return to politics.
00:28:26.100And if he does so, it's going to have to be elsewhere than in Alberta.
00:28:30.460And so in the national stage, this just fits the plot.
00:30:36.120Hopefully nothing as big as this, but there's going to be more.
00:30:38.620Somebody has to, as I put online, too, if you don't take control of the messaging, your opponents will.
00:30:44.540And the other side is going to be more or less united.
00:30:47.380I think what's shaping up is you're going to have, broadly speaking, maybe even it's one organization,
00:30:53.720But you're going to have two main spokesmen or two and a half spokesmen on the Federalist side.
00:30:59.220You're going to have Jason Kenney, who's trying to appeal to conservatives who are flirting with the idea, soft, you know, soft, sovereignists, as he would call them, or separatist curious, whatever term you want to use.
00:31:10.720People who are not happy with the status quo, but are not on the left.
00:31:16.720And then you're going to have Nenshi slash Thomas Lukasik or something speaking to the left to try and, you know, they're pretty united on their side, but trying to at least pump up their numbers, get them out to vote in big numbers.
00:31:28.980So the other, the Federalist side is going to be pretty united because they have definitely two different messages because they're appealing to people who do not vote the same way in elections.
00:31:38.980The independent side, pro-independent side is more politically homogenous. It's almost entirely of the right in some form or another.
00:31:46.720Uh, but I don't know, there's probably two dozen people who, uh, either lay claim or
00:31:52.820would like to lay claim to the leadership and it's a mess.
00:44:47.280Yeah. One of the things about, and I don't mean this unkindly, but I'm sure it was in the back of somebody's mind. She is already 79. There won't be one more in all likelihood, or if there is, there won't be for very long.