Alberta UCP staff attended Centurion Project meeting where voter database was on display
Posted May 5, 2026 3:59 pm.
Last Updated May 5, 2026 6:38 pm.
Alberta’s United Conservative Party caucus is confirming staff attended a meeting that allegedly explored how to access the database of personal information that’s now the focus of multiple investigations into a breach of personal data.
The caucus’ director of communications says the organizers of the Centurion Project meeting assured attendees the data on display was “obtained legally.”
“At the time, the staff observing the meeting had no reason to believe the website in question was unlawful,” said Shanna Schulhauser, who explained caucus staff “regularly attend events of political interest.”
That revelation came shortly after the Alberta NDP began asking questions about two UCP members – a party executive and caucus staffer – and their possible presence at a virtual meeting by the Centurion Project last month.
Leader Naheed Nenshi says his party has video evidence appearing to show the April 16 online meeting organized by the Alberta separatist project was attended by someone named Rob Smith and another named Arundeep Sandhu.
“Premier Smith must immediately confirm whether Rob Smith and Arundeep Sandhu identified in the video are the same individuals that are associated with the UCP party and caucus,” Nenshi wrote on X.
Rob Smith is the name of the president of the UCP, while Arundeep Sandhu is the name of the UCP caucus director of stakeholder relations. The screenshots shared by the Opposition leader indeed show people with those names as attendees listening to Centurion Project founder David Parker.
The United Conservative caucus did not confirm if Sandhu was the staffer who attended the meeting. But the UCP tells CityNews the Rob Smith who attended the meeting was not the party’s president.
“Naheed Nenshi is using a common name to drag our president through the mud,” a brief statement from the party reads. “Rob Smith was never at that meeting, nor has he been at any Centurion meeting. It is a flat-out lie.”
The premier’s office deferred to the UCP caucus and party statements.
Elections Alberta and the RCMP announced separate investigations into the Centurion Project for illegally publishing a public database with the names and addresses of nearly three million Albertans.
The database, Elections Alberta said last week, matches an official elector list the agency supplied 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. A judge last week ordered the Centurion Project database shut down.
The NDP alleges the April 16 meeting was providing training to volunteers on how to use the database.
“This video appears to show the database that was built using the unauthorized electors list that was the subject of an injunction issued by the Court of King’s Bench on April 30, 2026,” Nenshi wrote.
Nothing in the screenshots shared by the NDP confirms or refutes those allegations, nor how the list was obtained.
Nenshi told reporters he was made aware of the meeting on April 17– the day after the Centurion Project call. He says the NDP emailed the RCMP that same day to report it and pass on the recording.
“We also remain concerned that 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,” Schulhauser said.
“Perhaps instead of pointing fingers and playing politics the NDP should let these independent bodies to their job and investigate.”
Nenshi alleges Centurion Project members, at the meeting, demonstrated how to use the database by using former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney as an example.
“Jason Kenney’s personal information was shared on screen with all meeting attendees,” according to Nenshi.
The former premier, who addressed the leak of his home address, says he will seek legal advice over what he calls the “outrageous and potentially dangerous violation” of his personal privacy.
“Over the past few years I have received no shortage of threats from people broadly associated with the separatist / antivax / far right movement in Alberta. So it is disturbing that my personal information is now broadly available, particularly in those circles,” Kenney wrote on X Tuesday afternoon.
“While I have been targeted specifically, the broader data breach may also effect vulnerable Albertans, including victims of domestic violence, journalists, activists, judges, and other public servants for years to come.”
