Separatists Mitch Sylvestre and Jeff Rath showed up at Elections Alberta headquarters in Edmonton yesterday afternoon with a big crowd of flag-waving supporters and a trailer full of boxes of petition forms calling for a referendum on Alberta separating from Canada.
They said their “Stay Free Alberta” petition has gathered 301,620 signatures, more than the 178,000 required by its deadline on Saturday.
Mr. Sylvestre – CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project, proponent of the APP’s Stay Free Alberta campaign, and operator of a Bonnyville gun store – naturally tried to paint the achievement as evidence of unstoppable momentum. “We look forward to your government receiving this clear expression of the democratic will of Albertans and advancing the next steps,” he read from a letter to Premier Danielle Smith.
Mr. Rath, a lawyer who acts as the group’s principal spokesperson, told the CBC the stay on Elections Alberta verifying the signatures granted on April 9 by a Court of King’s Bench judge in response to a lawsuit from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the Blackfoot Confederacy is “meaningless” because the premier can’t ignore so many Albertans.
Except that she can, of course – at least if the signatures are those of the 456,365 Albertans who signed former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk’s Forever Canadian petition last year in a shorter time period despite a higher bar to success. Of those, more than 400,000 were verified by Elections Alberta, easily exceeding the nearly 300,000 required at the time.
Of course, that was before Premier Smith and her government temporarily changed the rules to make it easier for the separatists before changing them back again to make any more “citizens’ initiatives” harder and more expensive for anyone else.
And, yes, Mr. Lukaszuk chose a “legislative proposal” under the law in an effort to force his pro-Canada question to a vote in the Legislature. In hindsight, especially given the UCP’s willingness to keep changing the rules to benefit its separatist allies, this was a mistake. There can be no doubt many signers thought they were asking for that question to be on a ballot.
So if we’re just going to go by feelings now, as Mr. Rath argues we should, the numbers suggest that Forever Canada is the petition the premier mustn’t ignore.
Well, there’s not much chance of Ms. Smith doing the right thing. And in Messrs. Sylvestre’s and Rath’s boots, who wouldn’t try to make the referendum they want sound inevitable?
There are a couple of numbers in addition to the Albertans who signed the Forever Canadian petition to consider as well.
There are the one million signatures supporters of the Stay Free Alberta petition so confidently predicted in the opening days of the separatist campaign. Surely 300,000 is a bit of a come-down from that cheerful forecast.
More significantly, there are the 2.9 million Albertans who have been doxxed in what may have been the largest data breach in Canadian history when the entire provincial voters’ list packed with personal information somehow went from the so-called Republican Party of Alberta, which had acquired it legally, into a searchable database posted online by a separatist group calls the Centurion Project.
That database has since been pulled from the Internet, but the data is in the wind. This is a potentially significant problem for both Stay Free Alberta’s momentum and the machinations of the Smith Government since it would have made it easy for bad actors to sign a petition with real peoples’ names.
Well, maybe that was why some separation supporters were so confident about the outcome of their campaign.
The Centurion Project’s leader, David Parker of Take Back Alberta fame, said on social media yesterday that “the allegations that I personally received or distributed any unauthorized voter data are false. These issues involve active court proceedings and investigations. I will not be commenting further on the operations of the Centurion Project or the media speculation.”
The premier, meanwhile, is working hard to give the impression there’s nothing to see here now that Elections Alberta, the RCMP and the Edmonton Police Service are all investigating the breach.
“If a breach has been discovered, then we hope that those who are responsible are held accountable to the full extent of the law,” she said during Question Period yesterday. “We are encouraged by the fact that the EPS, RCMP and Elections Alberta are investigating.”
But as University of Alberta political science Professor Jared Wesley pointed on his Substack Sunday, “the RCMP will take years to investigate possible crimes. Elections Alberta, itself a player in this story, can act only within the increasingly narrow limits of its mandate and capacity. A legislative committee would turn this into political theatre.”
Dr. Wesley argued that only a public inquiry run by a judge can now restore faith in Alberta democracy. “Albertans should not be asked to vote in a referendum — especially one concerning the possible breakup of the country — while basic questions remain unanswered about whether the province’s voters list, petition process, election agency, referendum machinery and proponent organizations have been compromised.”
And as former RCMP intelligence manager Patrick Lennox wrote in his Substack last month, Elections Alberta is woefully unprepared to take on any investigation of this sort. “Their organizational chart demonstrates the lack of capacity to defend a provincial sovereignty referendum from foreign interference coming from extremely capable state-based adversaries,” he said.
The agency has just eight investigator positions, Mr. Lennox noted. “It is not known how many of those positions are currently filled.”
Alberta “has no independent provincial intelligence service or a provincial cyber security capacity,” he explained. “It doesn’t have a capability to trace foreign funds or dark money entering the process. It has no independent non-partisan task force set up to monitor the referendum and advise Albertans of foreign interference that is occurring in real or next to real time. … That belies a profound lack of understanding of the foreign interference threat vector, that is either willfully ignorant or intentionally aimed to abet external influence over the process.”
I guess you could argue that something like this has been coming down the pike since 2019, when that brainiac Jason Kenney, Alberta’s first UCP premier, fired Election Commissioner Lorne Gibson and rolled his office into Elections Alberta for the sin of levying $210,000 in fines on various bad actors involved the UCP leadership race that Mr. Kenney won.
After all, most of the people fined by Mr. Gibson’s office were involved in the effort by to bring down Mr. Kenney’s chief competitor, former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean, through what came to be known as the Kamikaze campaign. Plus, Mr. Gibson had been hired by Rachel Notley’s NDP government.
In case you’re wondering where Mr. Gibson is now that we need him, he’s running an election management consultancy in Winnipeg.
If and when the judge in the First Nations case gives the nod, Elections Alberta will have 21 days to verify the separatist petition. “Should information during the verification process reveal anomalies, further steps will be taken to ensure a 95-per-cent confidence level the signatures on the petition are valid and verified,” Elections Alberta said yesterday.
How many of these signatures and names of the seperation petition from Jeff Rath are fraudulent? I’ve seen it for myself, and I’ve heard it from other people that these separation petition sign up locations have very little people, or even no people present to sign the petitions. Of course Danielle Smith doesn’t want to take the matter of the leakage of personal information seriously. For her, it’s all about power.
Literally saw like maybe four people at about 10 different booths throughout late winter/early Spring. This entire thing is incredibly suspect. Really starting to wonder some kind of American psy-op going on here. As paranoid as that sounds, I mean look what they do to foreign nations on a regular basis, wouldn’t trust them as far as could throw them and this “premier” is clearly in their pocket as evidenced by her actions when that clown was elected, going down to his little perv compound etc. Yeah, sorry boys, this one needs to be scrutinized on highest levels as does that woman.
The simple fact is that there is no way to tell, and therefore Elections Alberta must declare itself incapable of verifying the signatures and declare the initiative to be unsuccesful. No investigation is needed for this.
“Their organizational chart demonstrates the lack of capacity to defend a provincial sovereignty referendum from foreign interference coming from extremely capable state-based adversaries” And there you have it. Alberta has been infiltrated by bad actors. We are incapable of solid, for the people governance. We have put a bad group of mentally ill actors into power. Tear Canada apart. Have no realistic plan or goals, other than to bankrupt Canadians and turn Alberta into an immediate third-world country. But, hey, why not? “It will be fun!”said the Alberta extremists and their international devious partners. Are we at the bottom yet? I think not. People go about their day to day activities with their heads in the sand. By all rights there should be a general strike until Smith et al. step down and move away from government, but the population is rife with those who support Smith. Alberta is Smith. Lukaszuk, Wesley, and the NDP and all people in opposition to the traitorous terrorists are silenced by the oligarchy owned media who love chaos – it is how they make their money. And the Alberta Government what a group of rogues if there ever was one. Forget peace and tranquillity – the terrorists want discord, thugs and criminals to “govern.” Two more years of this buffoonery and then to think that Albertans will once again choose to put murderous (People are needlessly dying due to UCP health policies), seditious (The UCP are actively trying to destroy the country) cruel beyond imagination (The UCP and their supporters are a danger to others and destroy hope whenever and wherever they can) religious fanatics (Donald Trump err Jesus is their leader). It is all about the death of our country and the push toward tyranny, a love fest for the UCP and their thuggish supporters. I for one and sick and tired of the UCP. I am sick of the moronic idiots tearing the public trust apart. Makes one distrustful of everyone. We are at psychological war with one another – is it necessary? If this was another place in time there would be a civil war no doubt. The tension is palatable. But they shrug their shoulders and choose to remain disinterested in their own welfare, to their certain doom. Better to die fighting than to live on your knees. But that is the whole point is it not? We are all forced to live on bended knee and anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial and therefore mentally ill. The problem is that Trump and his supporters love mental illness. It is a badge of honour for them. Not that there is anything wrong with being ill, but thankfully most psychopaths and sociopaths once mostly refrained from being in public office, now, however, it is the norm. Where is the federal government in all of this? I guess Canada exists in name only. What a terrible time to live in; the whole UCP fiasco is completely destructive and a threat to the well being of the people. We live in a toxic dystopian world lovingly created by people of ill intent.
Here’s what Google said about “poverty + dictator personality”:
“The intersection of poverty and a dictator’s personality involves a complex, often deliberate cycle where severe economic hardship is weaponized to maintain power.
Dictators, often described as possessing narcissistic, paranoid, and antisocial traits, may create or maintain poverty to keep the population focused on daily survival rather than political resistance.
The Dictator’s Personality and Motivations
Core Traits: Dictators often exhibit a “big six” constellation of personality disorders: sadistic, antisocial, paranoid, narcissistic, schizoid, and schizotypal.
The “Dark Triad”: Traits like narcissism (need for admiration), Machiavellianism (manipulation), and psychopathy (lack of empathy) help them rise to power and act ruthlessly.
Paranoia and Control: Paranoia is common, leading to the creation of an inner circle (often family) and a “cult of personality” where the leader is deified.
Origins in Hardship: Many dictators come from backgrounds of poverty or hardship, yet instead of alleviating it, they often use their positions to enrich themselves, leading to a “kleptocracy”.
Poverty as a Tool of Control
Dependency: By controlling essential resources—food, water, and healthcare—dictators create a dependent population that cannot afford to rebel.
Survival Mode: A population struggling to survive has little time, energy, or resources to engage in political opposition or questioning power.
Suppression of Education: Limiting education and social mobility keeps the population compliant and prevents the development of new ideas.
The Cycle of Poverty and Tyranny
Economic Decline: Dictatorships are often associated with poverty because they lack accountability. They tend to have lower social spending on education and health.
Deliberate Neglect: Famine or severe poverty is often ignored or attributed to outside factors (like bad weather) to deflect blame, a tactic often linked to the dictator’s cult of personality.
Unstable Beginnings: Weak, poor, or unstable governments are more likely to fall under the control of charismatic, yet ruthless, authoritarian leaders.
Key Takeaways
Poverty is not just a result of tyranny, but a mechanism used to ensure the tyrant’s longevity.
Dictators tend to be indifferent to the suffering of their people.
The “cult of personality” is used to mask the incompetence or ruthlessness of the ruler, demanding loyalty while the country faces economic collapse.”
Albertans are just at the beginning of their pain and suffering. Total destruction is on the way. Elect bad people, get bad government. Now electoral boundary changes and the doxxing of the entire voting populace might make it impossible to get rid of these people. Put out the “wrong” election sign, get a visit from the brownshirts? Soon, the youngs who complained about the lack of jicama for their salads in grocery stores during the pandemic might get a taste of Great Depression 2.0, Alberta style. Welcome to canned peas. That’s what UCP stands for: Unlimited Canned Peas.
The whole underhanded affair likely goes nowhere, as the 15 second news cycle attention span will have inevitably moved on to numerous other political mishaps that require consideration and eye ball capture/monetization in the time an ‘investigation’ is finally concluded, noting also that “By contrast, Parker has described Smith as a “friend” who shares his “passions.”” There is also that.
So obviously, nothing of great importance to see here. Once again noting that,
“David Parker is a devout Christian. He promotes Christianity to all of his followers. In Christianity, God is first before anything. God comes before family, man-made laws, everything.” That is man-made laws are reduced to a trifling nuisance, for a devout man of “God”. One more thing to overcome as the chosen one creates paradise on earth.
https://abresistance.substack.com/p/alberta-governments-christian-connection
More to the point, who is bank rolling young Mr. Parker? Does he have a full time job? It has become very expensive just to exist daily and maintain a roof over one’s head and that is without court costs that are both wildly expensive and time consuming. And apparently he has not hired just a lawyer, but lawyers.
That is,
““I’m not paying the fines until I get a court ruling and I’m probably not paying them after that because I’ll just appeal it to a higher court.” He added that once the charges have been addressed, he plans to launch a class-action lawsuit against Elections Alberta and the provincial government. He says he has hired lawyers who have won “hundreds” of such cases.”
https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/endless-war-take-back-albertas-david-parker-vows-prolonged-fight-with-elections-alberta
Something that took me an embarrassingly long time to realize, is that the voters list that appeared on the Centurion website, via the Republican Party, is the only data breach we KNOW about. That does not necessarily mean it is the only breach that has occurred. If the Republican Party is willing to leak the list once, it is entirely feasible that they also leaked it to the Stay Free campaign as soon as it was initiated.
This is one of the key points in analysis of this disaster. There may also be other parties’ lists in circulation. Some other parties may have been created just to get their hands on the list. DJC
Taking the new Banksy statue into consideration I find all the flag waving exceptionally amusing and ironic.
“There can be no doubt many signers thought they were asking for that question to be on a ballot.”
That was my assumption the whole time I was collecting signatures. As a result, the people I had to explain to the process to also thought they were asking for the question to be on a ballot.
I certainly hope the courts side with First Nations and rule the petition unconstitutional, as they have in the past. this will put Dictator Danni in a spot where she consistently demonstrates it is only her way or the highway and does not listen to anyone, but her gang. Smith knows the RCMP will take forever to investigate the data breach and Elections Alberta do not have the staff, nor will they ever have enough staff, to investigate this. In my view the taking someone to task will never happen, that is why Smith has spouted this out, because she knows and has it rigged so that nothing will happen.
In addition, the Electoral Boundaries gang met yesterday and the NDP tried various things to get at least a little transparency and ethics into the not really legal process. Of course absolutely all attempts were quickly snubbed by the UCP. This was another display of the dictatorship we are now under.
My take on this is the same bunch that called itself the freedom convoy.
The insanity continues. Once again we see seniors proving how stupid they are not showing any respect for our children and grandchildren’s future. They don’t care that it will force them into a privatized healthcare and education system creating an even worse financial mess for them to deal with. They don’t care that by kicking out the RCMP they will add thousands to our property taxes by eliminating what Ottawa is paying us for their services. Of course giving Smith control of our Canada Pension Plan , like they will, would be the dumbest thing they could do as lawyers warn.
Foghorn Leghorn and Elmer Fudd are calling the shots in Alberta now, while their pal Marvin the Martian beats a hasty retreat back to his home planet, fearing the wrath of the 2.9 million people he doxxed. “Go, I say go away boy, you bother me.” Not so fast, sonny. Somebody has to pay for the harm done. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and all that. Or, in the language of your motherland, Fiat justitia ruat caelum.
The Alberta Advantage!
After reading what that ex-Mountie Patrick Lennox has to say, I’m worried for Mark Carney. This thing is becoming bigger and more sinister by the day, and I wouldn’t put it past these separatist groups with the help of their southern pals to try something more serious to destabilize our country. If there was a terrible “incident” the U.S. could say oh dear, we’d better send our troops up there to “help”. Think Russia and Ukraine. These guys with TBA/Centurion/APP/Republican Party are kooks, very cocky, and have no problem operating at very low levels. Plus the support of Herself “fixing” things for them. Herself, who bolted down to Mar-a-Lago as fast as she could with that Kevin guy to congratulate Trump on his election win. And then all dolled-up going to the
Inauguration Ball in Washington. Did you see any other Canadian Premiers do that? And then, Dennis Modry asking her if she wanted to be called “Prime Minister” or “President” of an independent Alberta and she said, “Prime Minister”. She would appear to have ambitions beyond where she is now. I’m definitely getting the heebie-jeebies about where all this is going and think we are getting set up hugely.
People need to seriously start taking this line of reasoning, more seriously. Because yeah, this is starting to look textbook as someone who has studied military history for the better part of his life. If things become sketchy enough, say because you’ve orchestrated enough unrest, well…suddenly annexation becomes a “humanitarian” effort. Wake up folks, literally coming for our gold on the ceiling here.
I don’t know if it is momentum, but talk of separatism seemed to dominate mainstream media coverage recently. Just as Smith did, much of the coverage ignored or only mentioned the earlier much larger pro Canada petition in passing. Perhaps that is old news at this point, but I feel concerns about Smith trying to tilt things in favour of her separatist friends and supporters persist, especially because of her rule changes.
It is possible the separatist petition got enough signatures regardless, but with the recent data breach the signatures on this petition will be under a very dark cloud. So Elections Alberta will have to a lot of work to determine the validity of it. I’m not sure it even has the capability with its current resources, as limited by the UCP, to do this adequately.
Of course there is also the question of Court challenges and after that what happens if indigenous concerns are ignored or dismissed by Smith. What happens if these vast areas particularly in resource rich northern Alberta vote to stay, as they probably will. If the country is divisible then arguably the province is too.
Lastly there is the general economic uncertainty of all this. The world does not need more of the messes that MAGA, and the somehow well funded supporters it has inspired, seem to want to continue to create.
The odds and ends along with the allegations that are contained in the following may be of further interest to some individuals:
https://gangsterismout.com/?p=22363
Elections Allections Alberta is required by the Citizens’ Initiative Act to use a statistical method to verify the signatures using a smaller random sample, to a 95% confidence level. This means that having excluded things like duplicate signatures, the probability that there are more valid signatures than the threshold is at least 95%. But here’s the rub: there is no way of verifying this if the possibility exists that the information on the signature sheets was obtained from the confidential voters’ list. This doesn’t have to be investigated for EA to declare itself incapable of verifying the signatures and therefore declare the initiative unsucessful. Which is what EA must do. I see no other option.
Is there any coincidence that Louise Arbour will become the next Governor General? She was present on the International Criminal Court overseeing the prosecutions of the leaders of the factions that turned the regions of Yugoslavia into the hellholes they became.
Something to consider, the leadership of the seperatists have been communicating across international borders. Therefore, legally, there other aspects that come into play. As Governor General, with the experience that Ms. Arbour has, how would that affect the prosecution of individuals involved?
Woohoo! Dave check out Nenshi’s feed today and his press conference on youtube today about 2:30 I think. Some UCP staff were at an online meeting April 16 with Centurion Project where the database was used to dox Jason Kenney on video. And they did not report it to RCMP and did nothing. Smith said today she did not know but I think she is lying; or really really stupid. NDP reported it to the RCMP on Apriul 17.
Anyway there’s a trainwreck taking place, pick up some popcorn!.
Well we the UCP caucus knew we had reps at the centurion project meeting, but golly nobody realized that was a voters list. And I have a problem pyrite mine to sell you. It’s assayed value is 1 billion American dollars.
“Albertans should not be asked to vote in a referendum–especially one concerning the possible breakup of the country–while basic questions remain unanswered about whether the province’s voter list, petition process, election agency and proponent organizations have been compromised”
–Dr Jarred Wellesley, UofA polisci professor
I have a basic question myself: has any of the separatist orgs or the provincial government initiated a constitutional amendment process so that a mechanism to allow secession is added to the Constitution like the SCoC said? Should be the very first step in contemplating a referendum on secession, no? (Okay, two questions, then.)
Elections Alberta lacks the “capacity to defend a provincial sovereignty referendum from foreign interference coming from extremely capable state based adversaries.”
–Patrick Lennox, former RCMP intelligence manager
Really? Shouldn’t that be the ‘extremely capable 51st state based adversary’?
Jeff Rath called the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation/Blackfoot Confederacy’s court case “meaningless,” eh? How much more meaningless is a referendum when there’s currently no legal way to secede even if voters approved it?
I would never put Prime Minister Carney on the spot by asking what he will do if separatists claim victory based on a compromised referendum and questionable voting result, or declare independence unilaterally, or invite the USA to open an embassy and start printing money with Danielle Smith’s image on the twenties, Preston Manning on the fifties, and Bible Bill on the C-notes. I bet the PM already has the answers under his $uperman cape. It’s Jeff Rath and the Smith&Parker Gang I wish somebody would ask: what will you do if the separatist “yes” side wins the referendum but Ottawa says “Nope, secession has to be done properly. So, no. Sorry.”
Would the separatists invite tRump to come and defend Albertans’ freedom while the Canadian Forces deploy along the US border? It seems too remote to take seriously; maybe outlandishness is part of a longer-ranged schtick. One thing we do know, though, is that some Albertans look forward to the referendum happening just so’s it’s done, don’t have to listen to it no more.
Some indeterminable number of eligible voters who don’t want to secede are nonetheless concerned that the separatist side doesn’t get too badly defeated, and might vote tactically for that alone. I think altogether there are a lot of these kinds of voters who don’t want to separate but also don’t want to play that trump card just yet.
The current episode might have to be written off as an exercise in survivalist sufficiency testing. But long-range Alberta separatism is bigger than it was for a long time, maybe a tad more sophisticated. Engine’s turned over nice, battery’s charged up, could throw a tarp over it in the barn and it’d be ready to go for a long while–until the next time. There’s always a next time.
In the short range separatism is still in the mythological stage. Thing’s so compromised, needs airin’ out real good. Judging from the wreckage the entire psephological apparatus needs a rebuild–a huge job. To expect the UCP to resist contaminating it again is, I agree, probably expecting too much. Thus, if the electoral authority is to organize a referendum by October’s deadline, it has barely enough time or rebuild done yet to do it in. That alone recommends postponing the whole thing, probably until no sooner than next election. Otherwise it’s gonna look like it’s being choreographed by Gandalf in chaps.
This whole thing is such a mess maybe it will remain a lesson in UCP posterity for generations to come before al this gets sorted out.
What I’m really fearful of is this, I believe whether they get the numbers required or not, these folks intend to separate, and when they don’t get what they want by asking they will use force. They already have shown the capability to do so with the coutts blockade and a large percentage of those folks thought it didn’t go far enough.
No, there will be bloodshed. These people will not be reasonable when the time comes. If there’s a court injunction, if the signatures get tossed for obvious fraud, even if they get it on the ballet and it’s voted down, they won’t be successful legally, they intend to steal.
Bird: I think this is a possibility. I do think they hope to unilaterally declare independence, no matter how little public support they have. Whether or not they succeed will depend on several factors, some of which Albertans have no control over. DJC
Prominent albertans effectively have a target painted on their back now. Not for nothing, it’s the main reason this bird uses a pseudonym.