Supporters of Take Back Alberta braved the cold weather and persistent snowfall as they descended on Elections Alberta’s Edmonton headquarters to rally behind the organization’s founder.
David Parker was summoned to appear before the election agency Friday afternoon as Take Back Alberta faces a probe of its practices.
Parker arrived later than anticipated due to the poor road conditions, resulting in his trip from Calgary taking almost twice as long.
Despite running behind schedule, Parker still had time to give a short speech before entering the Elections Alberta building for his interview, scheduled to last an hour.
When he initially organized the protest with a post to X, Parker said that the “notice to attend” was issued with demands that he release the entire list of donors to Take Back Alberta, which he argued violates the Election Act, as the donations were not for political advertising.
The summons followed Parker declaring an “endless war” on Elections Alberta.
He reaffirmed this stance during his pre-interview speech.
“I will not turn you over to them. I will not give your information to them. I will not break my promise to every single one of the over 2,000 people that have donated to Take Back Alberta, and if that means they take me to court, if that means that they try to throw me in prison, so be it, because this is our stand,” said Parker.
“So, I’m going to go in there, and I’m going to answer their questions. I’m not going to be confrontational. But I am not going to give them what they want, which is you,” he added.
He returned nearly two-and-a-half hours after he left, instead of the initially projected one hour. Many supporters were still present to give Parker a round of applause.
He and his lawyer both gave exclusive interviews to True North.
Parker simplified the situation, saying that Elections Alberta believes his town halls, where people talk about politics, are election advertising. He disagrees.
Under the Elections Act, Parker explained that you have an operational account and an advertising account. He said that his activities were done under the operational account, which is not subject to reporting. He cited an example of unions having operational accounts that report no spending, as it’s only required from their advertising accounts.
A ruling will be issued following the interview, which Parker said he will release a recording of.
Regardless of the ruling, Parker will not release his donors list. He said that this is merely an attempt for “the bureaucratic state to thwart democracy. I’ll fight that as far as I have to.”
Leighton Grey, Parker’s lawyer, said that much of the evidence presented was “based on rumours and innuendo.” He said that Parker has a “prodigious memory,” which allowed him to correct any mistakes presented by the investigators.
Grey said there was no substance to any of the allegations.
“Essentially, what they want to do is to define just about any time people get together and talk about politics as some sort of political advertising,” said Grey. He added that if this were true, Charter rights to participate in peaceful demonstrations, protests, and meetings would be meaningless.
Grey said that if Parker accepted Election Alberta’s request to name donors, it could open Take Back Alberta up to civil litigation, as its donors have a constitutionally protected privacy interest.
He said Canadians have become accustomed to meeting, discussing, and sharing ideas, such as politics.
“There has not really been, in the past, this sort of tension where we’re actually fighting with our government for the right to meet.”
While Section 2c of the Charter, which deals with freedom of assembly, is a neglected area of constitutional law, according to Grey, he said that if Elections Alberta won this case, it would be “a frightening development in Canada.”
“We’ve always been a free country, and we have these inalienable rights that have been around for a very long time; they predate Canada, actually,” said Grey. “That would be a really shocking development if we actually had to litigate whether or not people can meet together to discuss politics.”
Grey added that the Freedom Convoy may have been the century’s most important public gathering, not just in Canada but the entire world.
“We have to be careful about what bureaucrats do in the dark. We have to shine light on that because we know, from the pandemic, if we’re not watchful of what’s going on with government, we can be placed in a situation where we lose a lot of the rights and freedoms that, unfortunately, we’ve taken for granted in Canada.”