The private information of nearly three million Albertans was allegedly obtained and published by separatist group the Centurion Project in April. The leak is the focus of three investigations: by the RCMP, Elections Alberta and the provincial privacy watchdog.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that an RCMP investigation is incredibly important, but it\u2019s operated on different standards, and we won\u2019t necessarily see the results of that investigation,\u201d lawyer Steven Cooper told CityNews. \u201cSo with the commencement of a class action\u2026 we\u2019re able to say to the government, \u2018What are you doing? What have you done? How did this happen? How are you going to present this or prevent this from happening in the future?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAn RCMP investigation is not going to do any of that, and internal political investigations are not generally designed to do any of that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement of claim also alleges David Parker, the founder of the Centurion Project, should have known his access to and use of the province\u2019s official voter list would put Albertans in harm\u2019s way. Parker has denied any wrongdoing in the case, initially claiming he obtained the personal information from a phonebook.<\/p>\n
The allegations have not been tested or proven in court, and a judge must certify the proposed class-action lawsuit before it can proceed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the vulnerable class in Alberta that has the most to worry about,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cAnd even before we filed, we started to hear about, for example, counsellors that are assisting victims of domestic abuse having to move those individuals from where they were because they were giving the safe houses in some instances as their address, that was their current address.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so the bottom line was we realised that we needed to get this dealt with immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper says other members of society considered \u201cvulnerable\u201d are people in the justice system \u2013 like judges, defence lawyers and prosecutors \u2013 or social workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople responsible for taking children away and bringing them into custody and preventing a parent, a mother or a father, from seeing those children, or both of them. I\u2019m quite certain that they are, and understandably, concerned,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has already had a direct impact, a measurable, seeable, visible impact on individuals, and the fact that\u2026 we\u2019re getting contacted by individuals, having just made the public aware, I expect that there\u2019s going to be an overwhelming number of instances where people are coming forward to say, \u2018I am afraid that X or Y will get this information.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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 accessible on the separatist website.<\/p>\n
Elections officials got the website taken down and the list was traced to the Republican Party, which was legally allowed to have it but not share it with unauthorized groups, including the separatist group.<\/p>\n
\u2013With files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n
\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n
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