Mr. Speaker, once again, I urge you, I implore you, to consider my request for an emergency debate within the House of Commons.
There are new revelations today that warrant this request. The Alberta referendum is quickly devolving into a crisis on multiple fronts. The integrity of the elections process is in question. Foreign interference in our democracy, allegations of illegal collusion by separatists and a potential national unity crisis are looming on the horizon. This is happening right now.
This morning The Canadian Press revealed that with less than two weeks to go until Alberta's referendum, more than 3,000 mail-in ballots have been returned with errors that make them invalid.
We have been warning for months that Elections Alberta is underfunded and does not have the needed staff to process ballot packages or to count the votes. The new, complicated voting process introduced by Danielle Smith's government has created enormous accessibility barriers to voters.
This is a scandal, and this is on top of the reports this weekend detailing the extent of collaboration between Alberta separatists and Republican operatives in the United States. This is not a provincial matter. It is a very serious threat to Canada's democracy and national unity.
The Alberta Information and Privacy Commissioner, Diane McLeod, called the leak of Alberta's private data “the worst [data] breach in Canadian history” and said her office was flooded with calls and emails from Albertans concerned for their safety.
My constituency office has been inundated with calls from Albertans concerned about the process, including seniors who have learned there are no polling stations inside seniors residences, which means many seniors in Alberta will not be able to vote because they cannot wait hours in line.
Alberta's referendum is failing every single democratic test we have.
Today's news raises serious questions. Can Albertans trust that their votes will be counted? Can they trust that the process and the outcomes have not been influenced by foreign actors? Parliamentarians need the opportunity to ask the federal government what it is doing to ensure the electoral integrity of this.
As a member of an unrecognized party, I do not have the ability to raise these issues in committee. This is my only opportunity to ask questions of the government regarding its responses. The Alberta civilians, the Canadian citizens, I represent deserve those answers.
Mr. Speaker, I am asking you today to let us ask the important questions and demand transparency and security from the federal government as Albertans question whether their votes are safe, whether their data is safe and whether we are headed to a national unity crisis.