There is a wild story happening in Alberta right now, where a separatist group got their hands on a copy of a voters list and made it public and searchable, which is a) illegal; and b) dangerous, particularly to people who are being threatened, stalked, or in hiding from abusive ex-partners, or so on. A judge ordered it taken down, Elections Alberta and the police are involved, but this is so, so messy. It appears that the list came from the already dubious “Republican Party of Alberta,” which was stood up in the interests of getting certain separatist personalities elected into the legislature, and the thing about voter lists is that they are salted with fake names in order to be traceable.

And then comes this twist—a month ago, journalist Jen Gerson warned Elections Alberta about this after receiving a tip from a source, and Elections Alberta said it was credible, but then did nothing because the list could have come from public sources, even though it would have been easy enough to check for the salted names. But they didn’t. And then a month later, this injunction comes down with the investigation, after all of this personal information has been on the internet and accessed by who knows how many people, putting some lives in real jeopardy as a result.

The thing is, we’ve been dealing with issues related to voters lists and privacy legislation federally, when the government tacked on these provisions to Bill C-4 (ostensibly about the GST cut on new homes and ending the consumer carbon levy), and it was basically a move to bigfoot provincial privacy commissioners over how parties protect this data, and simply insist that parties have a policy—nothing about minimum safeguards or any of that. Just a policy. These provisions got zero study in the Commons, because of course they didn’t, and it took a group of senators to try and force changes, and the only amendment they could pass was a sunset clause to push parties to get actual privacy protections in place, and then MPs rejected that amendment (and senators did not insist on it). Now, the government is revisiting these provisions somewhat in Bill C-25, but this whole debacle just underscores how important it is for parties to have proper safeguards, and to have serious teeth when it comes to enforcing them, because as stated above, lives are at stake when this information gets into the wrong hands.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian drones attacked Odesa again early Thursday, wounding at least 18 people. Ukrainian drones struck Russian oil infrastructure in Tuapse (again), Perm, and Orenburg.

Good reads:

• Mark Carney downplayed the issue of Conservatives going to Washington, saying there is only one negotiator, and that they haven’t learned anything new.
• Carney also announced that Jonathan Wilkinson will be the next ambassador to the EU, after months of hinting this would happen.
• Lina Diab says that she is accountable but not responsible for the visitor visa issued to the Iranian official who was later turned away at the border.
• Gary Anandasangaree says that the proposed powers to search and seize mail will be exercised by police and not postal workers. (Only with a warrant, right? Right?)
• Major Project Office CEO Dawn Farrell says that the mere threat of the Henry VIII powers in C-5 is enough to help move projects along. (Okay, then).
• A leaked report shows that the success rate at the Canadian Forces’ basic training fell from 85 percent to 77 percent over the last year.
• New PBO Annette Ryan criticised the spring update for a lack of information on spending targets and specific objectives.
• Here is more about what we know about the planned new Financial Crime Agency.
• Trump signed a presidential permit for the Bridger Pipeline, which uses the cross-border assets of the aborted Keystone XL pipeline.
• Michael Geist points out several problems with the plans to ban social media for minors (beyond the obvious privacy nightmare it creates).
• Mike Moffatt does a bit of well-deserved back-patting as the government has implemented some of the Missing Middle Initiative’s ideas in the Spring Update.

Odds and ends:

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