Alberta NDP claims 2 UCP members attended virtual Centurion Project meeting

Alberta's NDP says it has evidence two UCP staff members attended a Centurion Project meeting.

Alberta’s New Democrats say they have obtained evidence of two United Conservative Party members attending an online Centurion Project meeting on April 16.

A news release from the NDP said the purpose of the meeting was to train volunteers on how to use the separatist group’s database, which is currently at the centre of a data breach investigation.

The NDP obtained a recording of the meeting, which was attended by 80 people. The list of attendees included the names of UCP president Rob Smith and UCP caucus director Arundeep Sandhu.

“We know there are separatists in the UCP, that’s not a shocker,” said Official Opposition and Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “The issue is whether someone who has direct relations to Danielle Smith, knew what was going on and did nothing, and, if in fact, it’s illegal to do that.”

An email from the UCP denied that the president was ever at the meeting.

“Nenshi is using a common name to drag our president through the mud,” said the UCP. “Rob Smith was never at that meeting, nor has he been at any Centurion meeting. It is a flat-out lie.”

But a statement from the UCP Caucus said caucus staff were in attendance, and they regularly attend events of political interest.

“The organizers of this meeting were adamant that the data being used was obtained legally,” said caucus communications director Shanna Schulhauser in a statement. “At the time, the staff observing the meeting had no reason to believe the website in question was unlawful.”

Schulhauser said they are concerned about the data breach allegations and are awaiting the results of investigations by RCMP and Elections Alberta.

“We also remain concerned that the members of the NDP, including the leader of the Opposition, may have suspected the list was illegal but did not bring this information forward to the government for several weeks.”

Elections Alberta and the RCMP are investigating the Centurion Project after they were made aware of voter information potentially being inappropriately used and shared by the project.

According to the NDP, Centurion Project members demonstrated during the meeting how to use the database to search for personal information of Albertans by searching for the name and address of former premier Jason Kenney.

Kenney’s personal information was allegedly shared on-screen to those who attended the online meeting.

“I don’t care if they were spies,” said Nenshi. “They still had an absolute requirement to do something. Instead, they sat there as Jason Kenney was being doxxed in front of all these people. It’s totally unacceptable.”

The NDP said they have provided this information to RCMP while they conduct their investigation and are also calling on Premier Danielle Smith to confirm whether or not the two UCP members attended the meeting.