Take Back Alberta Leader Facing Contempt of Court, Cross-Examination by Elections Alberta

The leader of “Take Back Alberta” is facing more trouble with the law.

David Parker, a key political ally of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith who is credited with ousting former Premier Jason Kenney and installing Smith in his place, says he is being cross-examined in an Elections Alberta investigation Friday before facing a contempt of court hearing Monday.

Parker, who has been resisting disclosing the names of donors to his far-right political group to Elections Alberta revealed his latest legal troubles on the group’s Telegram channel Friday morning.

“Today I am being cross-examined again by Elections Alberta,” Parker wrote on Telegram, adding: “July 29th, I will be in court for a ‘contempt’ hearing.”

“My crime is teaching you all about how your democracy works.”

Take Back Alberta (Telegram)

Parker, who previously claimed without evidence that the investigation is politically motivated, says he is not worried about Elections Alberta.

“I’m not that worried about it,” Parker told PressProgress in an interview Friday morning. “They’re annoying.”

“They want more documentation, and some of it I don’t have,” Parker said. “It’s not fair to those people because they donated under the assumption that my meetings are not election advertising. That was not my assumption.”

Although he has so far resisted giving up the names of Take Back Alberta’s donors, Parker says he has been busy working the phones contacting donors about the possibility their names may be disclosed in court.

“I’m now calling all of the donors and having chats with the donors,” Parker said. “There’s two thousand of them, so it’s a lot of conversations. I’m just finding out if they’re okay with their information being shared.”

Parker previously said Elections Alberta shouldn’t name the donors to Take Back Alberta because that would be a “dangerous game messing with the powerful.” In March, Parker staged a protest outside Elections Alberta’s headquarters.

Asked if he believes his rebellion against Election Alberta has been crushed, Parker responded with five seconds of laughter.

“No,” Parker said. “Not at all.”

David Parker (Facebook)

Under Alberta’s election laws, all donations over $250 to a third party political organization must be reported to Elections Alberta and donor names are posted publicly online. Donations can go as high as $30,000.

Parker has previously admitted Take Back Alberta’s donors include big donations in the range of thousands of dollars.

PressProgress confirmed late last year that TBA has been under investigation by the provincial election watchdog.

NEW: Elections Alberta is looking into Take Back Alberta’s finances and donations, the group’s former CFO says.

TBA founder David Parker also had his posting privileges on the group’s Telegram channel revoked amid in-fighting between TBA leaders.https://t.co/gHgVtSnZ31 #ableg

— PressProgress (@pressprogress) November 24, 2023

TBA’s former CFO Marco Van Huigenbos explained he was contacted by an Elections Alberta investigator to “open the books” on the third-party group’s financial reporting, including for the election where it reported zero donations and zero expenditures as a registered election advertiser.

Van Huigenbos, who is convicted for mischief over $5,000 relating to his role in the Coutts border blockade, is now feuding with Parker despite having worked with him to grow TBA in its early stages. Van Hugenbois will face sentencing in September.

Van Huigenbos told PressProgress he is cooperating with the financial audit and says the group has received significant donations over the years.

Parker insists none of TBA’s activities count as elections advertising, and are exempt from the rules, and is threatening to challenge a ruling against the organization in court.

“Even if Elections Alberta rules that it is election advertising, then there’s going to be a court case on that,” Parker said.

‘It’ll be a big long ordeal.”