For several days the sordid tale of how a Globe and Mail journalist was stalked and photographed by a person or persons as yet unidentified has been one of the best read, least reported stories in Alberta.
Best read because prima facie evidence of the harassment in the form of photos of reporter Carrie Tait talking to two women published on social media, and scathing comments by supporters of the United Conservative Party Government angered by her stories about allegations made in a lawsuit by fired Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos were there for all to see on social media.
Least reported because most responsible journalists and commentators presumably didn’t want to make Ms. Tait’s situation worse, and because everyone was waiting to see how the Globe would respond to the anonymous account on Twitter/X – ginned up to look like an unrelated account that has broken significant stories about the UCP government – that was promising to “start exposing Carrie Tait’s sources.”
Yesterday, the newspaper published its response and the story is a doozy, certainly worse and more troubling than I expected it to be, and I expected it to be pretty bad.
The Globe report – which, unfortunately, is behind the newspaper’s online paywall – also described how phone calls were made to several of Ms. Tait’s contacts from a phone that spoofed her phone number, and how the author of the anonymous X account appeared to have personal medical information about the reporter obtained from a pharmacy.
The Globe quoted the premier’s press secretary saying, “the Premier’s Office has no involvement with this account or Mr. David Wallace,” the latter being a podcaster and self-described political “fixer” associated with a number of figures in conservative political circles in Alberta who had also weighed in on the photos.
In the absence of any definitive evidence to the contrary, we have no choice but to take Sam Blackett’s word for that, but surely this story suggests how the UCP’s angry and confrontational style is debasing political discourse in this province. One really hopes the Globe will take its paywall off this story so that all Albertans and Canadians can see what’s happening here in Alberta.
Mr. Blackett also refused to comment on what Premier Danielle Smith thought of her supporters trying to intimidate reporters who wrote critical stories about her government. “The Premier’s Office does not comment on the random postings of anonymous social media accounts that it has no involvement with,” he told the Globe.
An obviously annoyed Ms. Smith made the same point to a reporter at the premiers’ meeting in Ontario yesterday.
Meanwhile, Premier Smith has dropped her demand that the town of Jasper apologize to her and withdraw a consultant’s report that found fault with the provincial government’s conduct in the July 2024 fire that destroyed about a third of the Rocky Mountain national park community.
When Jasper Mayor Richard Ireland told reporters at a news conference yesterday that “we don’t doubt the report at all” but that it wasn’t intended to be a political document, Ms. Smith chose to interpret that as an apology of sorts, and attacked the messengers instead.
Picking up on a statement in a town news release, obviously intended to pour oil on troubled waters, that “we take exception to the politicization of the After-Action Review and its observations, especially in the media,” Ms. Smith complained on Facebook that “some media outlets chose to misrepresent and politicize the content and tone of the report.”
Sorry, but that is nonsense. While it tried to set a generally positive tone, the report based on interviews with 300 firefighters and officials said what it said, and what it said is that actions of provincial officials “contributed to confusion, increased safety risks and hindered effective allocation of resources.”
As Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi put it, “the UCP government exploited a life and death moment to pick more fights with the feds. And in their response to this report, rather than accepting responsibility and promising to do better, they do what they always do: lash out at any criticism, insult others, and refuse to accept blame for the mistakes they have made.”
Also yesterday, in an obvious attempt to influence the courts, federal Conservative Leader and Alberta by-election candidate Pierre Poilievre jumped to the defence of convicted insurrection convoy leaders facing serious jail time for their activities during the February 2022 occupation of the national capital.
Mr. Poilievre and other prominent Conservatives, members of a political movement generally associated with calls for harsh justice to be meted out on those convicted of even minor crimes, accused the courts and prosecutors of seeking political vengeance.
“How is this justice?” the Conservative leader complained. No wonder voters in his former Ottawa-area Carleton riding sent him packing on April 28!
And here in Wild Rose Country, Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan published a muddled screed attacking King Charles III for being too much like Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Mr. Carney for being too much like Justin Trudeau, or something.
Apparently Mr. Stephan doesn’t approve of constitutional monarchy when the wonderful example of the American Republic is right next door, and furthermore thinks “Canada has the worse version of the Westminster system elevating the prime minister of Canada to powers of a de facto king between elections.
Well, first ministers indeed can have a lot of power in a majority government in the Westminster Parliamentary system – as is the case in the rather dictatorial provincial government Mr. Stephan is part of. But the MAGA MLA seems to have missed it that the current Liberal Prime Minister saw his party fall three seats short of majority in the April 28 federal election.
Mr. Stephan also complained about prime ministers who don’t like Alberta. In addition to Mr. Carney, like Stephen Harper, I suppose, and Joe Clark, perhaps? Every one of them an Albertan, just like the seatless federal Opposition Leader, Mr. Poilievre, and the potential NDP leader, Heather McPherson.
After quoting Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln – one could find worse Americans to cite, it’s true – Mr. Stephan promised more rambling lectures on “increasing freedom and prosperity for Albertans.” I wonder how long it will take for him to get around to advocating that we become the 51st state?
Mr. Stephan was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal on June 20, 2025. His nominator was Danielle Smith. I suppose it would be too much to ask to expect Ms. Smith to nominate Canadian patriots for such honours.
Taken together as a wellness check, these four stories do not suggest the Alberta conservative movement is in a healthy state of mind.
Pressure is something [conservatives] feel when [they] do not know what [they] are doing. —apologies to Chuck Noll
“ Taken together as a wellness check, these four stories do not suggest the Alberta conservative movement is in a healthy state of mind. ”
That Sir, is the understatement of the year so far
IMHO, it’s rather odd that Mr Wallace is seemingly a common denominator in a number of “fixer” stories.
–Calgary police investigating entrapment scheme targeting former mayor
–Political “fixer” says former Alberta Justice minister** hired him to get reporters phone records of Allana Smith…
(** Jonathan Denis: Skippy’s business partner )
As someone else pointed out earlier, reporters (especially female,like Rachel Gilmore)being stalked by ‘fixers, besides being creepy is so David Pecker/ National Enquirer: if you can’t find a story, make one up. Eerily similar to Mr Fedora & Co .Facts don’t matter, as long as you can get a headline out as red meat. Taking down the information is too little, too late; the pack is already snarling over the scraps.
——————–
–Marlaina in front of the media ” I demand an apology.
–Marlaina, I accept the independent report.
–Marlaina, it’s all the media’s fault.
Blatantly using my perogrative as a woman, (I’ll have the saucer of milk later) I noticed on the news of the first ministers meeting, Marlaina’s suit was missing the spots.
——————
As for Skippy, ‘elevating his profile’ in a candy apple liberal red Rolls Royce connecting with his “preferred” constituents, the farmers of rural Alberta, railing about the PM’s investments in companies that he also has investments in, calling people who are running against him scammers and still has time to sob about the Ottawa squatters that he took coffee and donuts to—- WAIT, just a minute here.
First, does this entitle him to work experience as a car hop? As a paid MP, did he claim that on his expenses?
2nd, is this what gave him the idea that he wanted to become an Ottawa squatter,and have someone bring him coffee? It must be really jarring for him to be, what? Staying in hotels, an AIRBNB, did he kick out his Calgary tenants? Maybe someone should ask him?
– ——————-
Sarah the independent candidate that was getting death threats, posted that the only political figure to reach out to her with sympathy was the Liberal candidate Mr Carby(?).
PP is busy playing footsie with the criminals and Marlaina is busy charming the other first ministers, and coincidentally Doug Ford is hosting them @ the “cottage” that he escaped to when the convoy hit Ottawa.
Murphy? Irony? or CMTSU?
Jkenney:” the lunatics are running the asylum…”
The podcast Canadaland did a 3-part series on David Wallace called “Ratfucker” a couple years ago.
https://www.canadaland.com/shows/ratfucker/
I haven’t read a lot of analysis on Pierre Poilievre’s seat loss, but I have been surprised that none of what I have read has mentioned his support of the truckers’ occupation in Ottawa. There can’t have been very many residents of Ottawa that appreciated all the problems they caused, especially among the part of his base that supports law and order.
I also wonder whose idea it was to take the truckers coffee. I have read that advisor Jenni Byrne has been his campaign manager for a while, and that Poilievre also takes a great deal of political advice from his wife. So, whose idea was coffee for criminal occupiers?
Bob: Good questions. Without question, Mr. Poilievre’s campaign was hurt by his support for the would-be coup plotters. He admitted as much himself when he whinged about civil servants moving to his riding and – quelle horreur! – exercising their right to vote for someone else. There was a day (when I lived in Ottawa) when Carleton and other areas in the Ottawa Valley were a different world, as different as Duchess or Manyberries are from Edmonton or Calgary. No more. There are Ottawa suburbs in Carelton now. Mr. Poilievre, the MP for the riding, doesn’t seem to have been aware of that. That, I would suggest, says a lot about how much attention his was paying to his constituents. DJC
To say that a reporter has been followed by someone and photographed is what they do to everyone else.
In my opinion, an important caveat, the behaviour described by The Globe and Mail and observed by many of us on social media fits the definition of section 264 (1) of the Criminal Code of Canada:
264 (1) No person shall, without lawful authority and knowing that another person is harassed or recklessly as to whether the other person is harassed, engage in conduct referred to in subsection (2) that causes that other person reasonably, in all the circumstances, to fear for their safety or the safety of anyone known to them.
Marginal note:Prohibited conduct
(2) The conduct mentioned in subsection (1) consists of
(a) repeatedly following from place to place the other person or anyone known to them;
(b) repeatedly communicating with, either directly or indirectly, the other person or anyone known to them;
(c) besetting or watching the dwelling-house, or place where the other person, or anyone known to them, resides, works, carries on business or happens to be; or
(d) engaging in threatening conduct directed at the other person or any member of their family.
Of course, the argument that you put out would be any defendant’s likely first line of defence, as it is legal to take photos in a public place. The tweets, though, do suggest that the intent was to intimidate and harass.
DJC
Oh dirty playbook of attacking investigative reporters? Where have we seen *that* before?
Vague threats of “we’re going to disprove their story.”
Well my answer is, “put up or shut up”. Let the public decide.
Grope N Fail’s paywall shows one of the biggest problem in today’s media. Infantile right-wing garbage gets spewed all over the internet for free but left-wing or properly researched work is hidden behind paywalls.
Then we wonder why the public is so chronically misinformed. How many established outlets can most people afford to support?
B: To be fair, back in the day, you had to pay for your newspaper. Indeed, we used to have a saying about that in the newspaper business, back when it was still a viable business: “We have an unwritten contract with out readers: They pay a dime and we explain everything.” DJC
I used to deliver the Toronto Telegram. Ten cents on the weekday and fifteen cents on Saturday. Christmas rip was a dollar. No self respecting paper boy ever quit before Christmas! Mind you the customer always extracted their tip dollar out of their wallet like they were giving you a Nobel Prize.
JE: I delivered the Victoria Daily Times along Dallas Road, where every other house required a dash up a long staircase over the rocks. With the exception of Jerry Gosley, tips were few and far between. I can’t imagine why Mr. Gosley would have tipped a fresh-faced young lad so generously. DJC
It’s too bad there isn’t a way to pay for articles one at a time. I don’t want to buy a G&M subscription, and thus support yet another right-wing media outlet, but I’d gladly toss in a few bucks to read their journalism on this particular matter.
As for the substance of the issue, this attack on a woman pursuing matters unpopular with a conservative government, doesn’t it also rhyme* a bit with Lethbridge Police surveillance of a former NDP MLA & Cabinet Minister, Shannon Phillips?
[*”History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes”: Mark Twain].
Someone should come up with a substack where you buy poker chips.
You buy a stack of chips, then you throw a poker chip in when you want to read that article about something you want to know by a reporter you trust.
That way, you’re getting what you paid for, the writers get paid, and you can check out all different versions of a story from different political affiliated writers/newspapers if you want to. If you read a lot this month you use up a lot of chips on your favourite hot story. If you’re on vacay or nothing interests you, you’re not paying for it. And you don’t need a crapton of different patrions/substacks/paypal accounts etc.
Just sayin’
@DJC, in our working class neighbourhood we had one free local paper (now owned by the USA), a regional paper that cost a tiny bit once a week that had the local shopping sales flyers in it. We bought the Star, the neighbour bought The Globe and sometimes we’d trade them around. Later, I’d read lots of them at the library at school.
Because you paid for the *paper* and *owned it forever* and once you did, the whole family could read it, the neighbours could read it and when it was done, you could wrap wet garbage in it and use it to line the cat/bird box. Everyone in the family didn’t have to rent their own copy that only lasted as long as the subscription, if they wanted to save some of the stories.
Now it’s “every writer for themselves” sadly. Which isn’t good for the investigative reporters that used to spend months or even years, digging up the deep stories, either.
I don’t know the solution to that. I’m glad to see the various voices but I have noted that the right doesn’t paywall as frequently as the left (could be due to less research).
That’s an imbalance I’d like to see rectified.
B: The right paywalls things less than the left because the right is bankrolled by people with deep pockets. The only institutionalized group vaguely on the left that could do this is the Labour movement and in most parts of Canada, including Alberta, they will not contemplate it. I have been advicating this for more than 20 years, as have many others, without success. DJC
Maybe Mr. Stephan needs another trip to Arizona to clear his head, or is that Africa? Maybe he only visits places that start with the letter “A”, out of loyalty to Alberta, or is that America? Nice of him to show up eventually to be sworn in for his job, once his latest holiday was over. Priorities, eh, or “A”!
Maybe Danielle Smith has been getting ideas on how to govern from her frequent trips to her holiday home in Panama. Is it true that someone wouldn’t let reporters bring their equipment into a “public” Town Hall?
https://newsroompanama.com/2025/06/16/bocas-del-toro-attacks-on-journalists-journalism-unions-condemnation/
Who was it that said Alberta needs more Viktor Orbán?
https://pressprogress.ca/alberta-premier-danielle-smith-floats-tax-discounts-to-motivate-women-to-produce-more-babies/
What would happen if more Orbán were to occur, perhaps with a touch of more Ron DeSantis? Would pharmacies rat women out for filling birth control prescriptions? Would women be forced to chart and submit their menstrual cycles to government, or be stalked and arrested? Would government policies aimed at keeping trans women and girls out of organized sports involve government parts inspections?
What will happen to Canada with Stephen Harper and all his proteges reunited in one place — Alberta?
We live in increasingly dangerous times. What seemed implausible or impossible in 2023 now seems possible and plausible. Alberta is a hot spot for Canada’s demise.
Who paid the private investigator who followed Carrie Tait for days (if not weeks)? Who benefits if Ms. Tait’s contacts refuse to give her any more information about the AHS scandal? Who has the most to lose if Ms. Tait continues to break stories about AHS and the firing of its CEO?
Tuesday’s follow-up in the Globe points out that when asked about the intimidation of Carrie Tait, Smith, who was in Huntsville for the premiers’ gabfest, laughed and walked away. She only managed to sum up the required indignation later, and only then did she say all the right things.
Simply placed ,if you are into peeping on children ,exploiting children with immunity,stalking journalists seems so less important,just saying
Seems small on what these peepers enjoy
While not directly tied to your main stories today (although related to the perpetual angst and claims of poverty by the AB right), check out the Postmedia article “Robust 2024 performance brought executive bonuses at Alberta’s biggest companies”. My two favorite bits are “Overall, 97 per cent of named executive officers received incentive bonuses, up from 93 per cent in 2023”, and my favorite “Alberta’s energy sector continued to shape compensation trends, with more than 70 per cent of executives in the top 100 connected to the oilpatch”.
How is this even possible when the energy sector is continually discriminated against?
Well this is just how the UCP and the right wing rolls and it isn’t often pretty. At least they seem to have realized picking fights with Jasper wasn’t one of their better ideas. So at least that’s good, but that’s about it.
The attempts to intimidate and silence or discredit Ms Tait are deplorable. Its too bad Smith can’t seem to bring herself to condemn this. There is a murky aspect to the right wing, its hard to say what Smith’s involvement or knowledge of this really is. She is distancing herself from it, but not really disavowing it. This sort of reminds me of Nixon’s plumbers. Obviously Tait’s revelations have struck a nerve for someone who is a UCP supporter. This sort of response could mean the Tait has found something even more damaging or there is worry she is close to doing so.
Stephan seems to still be suffering a bad case of TDS (Trudeau Derangement Syndrome), it seems to be a common affliction in the UCP. They really need to move on.
Lastly, even though not bringing them donuts now, Poilievre remains sympathetic to the convoy gang. Probably a big part of the reason he lost his Ottawa area riding as his former constituents did not appreciate all the social disorder and mayhem caused in their community. Apparently some criminals are better than others in Poilievres view. Perhaps instead of donuts he can now send them a more traditional cake in prison.
Jason Stephan musta got his Canadian history from watching Hee -Haw.
“No Kings”? Perjection or proversion? Hee-Haw!
Where are the federal police and security services?
“investigation” of what pray tell? As long as the alleged “stalker” is not breaking the law there is no “scandal” here… “Surreptitious” photographs? This is done all the time by news media… The G&M can call the police if they think there is a crime committed… Otherwise it is just a bunch of legacy media whining…
In my opinion, an important caveat, the behaviour described by The Globe and Mail and observed by many of us on social media fits the definition of section 264 (1) of the Criminal Code of Canada:
264 (1) No person shall, without lawful authority and knowing that another person is harassed or recklessly as to whether the other person is harassed, engage in conduct referred to in subsection (2) that causes that other person reasonably, in all the circumstances, to fear for their safety or the safety of anyone known to them.
Marginal note:Prohibited conduct
(2) The conduct mentioned in subsection (1) consists of
(a) repeatedly following from place to place the other person or anyone known to them;
(b) repeatedly communicating with, either directly or indirectly, the other person or anyone known to them;
(c) besetting or watching the dwelling-house, or place where the other person, or anyone known to them, resides, works, carries on business or happens to be; or
(d) engaging in threatening conduct directed at the other person or any member of their family.
Of course, the argument that you put out would be any defendant’s likely first line of defence, as it is legal to take photos in a public place. The tweets, though, do suggest that the intent was to intimidate and harass.
DJC
Just catching up on things. I personally believe that the UCP and Danielle Smith are very afraid for what’s about to take them right down, with the MH Care (Corrupt Care) scandal. This is why we see antics like this happening. Carrie Tait will come out the winner, as will Athana Mentzelopoulos and Nate Pike.
I hope that Carrie takes care. It has been mentioned before in comments on previous articles that the Alberta He@lth scandal is poking a big nest. It is not the government at issue but the puppeteers with deep pockets who have long fed at the trough. And it’s not just conservatives and not just at the provincial level.
Smith may have laughed but it’s because they all feel untouchable knowing who and what is at their backs.
The big money is playing both sides and what is going on in Alberta is a part of what is going on at a national level and globally. And it is tied to much bigger financial entities, global scandals that probably include the mon@rchy.
At first glance that might seem ridiculous but it is not. Follow the money and the decades long scandal involving that dead pedophile who is currently a thorn in Trump’s side.
He had ties to a certain member of the r0yal family, who in turn was charged with economic development for his family, which includes dealings with c0mm0nwe@lth countries of which corp Alberta/Canada has notable partnerships.
Now add into that the fact that said r0yal family member was top milit@ry and would have had friendships among milit@ry contemporaries in our country and around the world, as well as had questionable relationships with Chin@ etc and you might get the bigger picture.
The terrifying part is that our p0lice, milit@ry and even our courts do not answer to us. Who do they answer to?
And then there is the connection to the criminal element as enforcers.
We need to look back at previous scandals, at the scandals across the country – L0nd0n hospital ie. So who owns the companies that benefit especially in he@lth, in private he@lth, and in expanding farmaceuticals into experiment@l ment@l he@lth programs et al?
The white collar crime has grown so off the charts that it just can’t stay hidden.
Then ask why certain crimin@ls never seem to make it to trial?
Those are the people Carrie needs to watch out for. We need to keep on this and support Ath@na. It is the way these days to litigate to death and exhaust. It’s also a tactic to delay investigations so that things get forgotten about.
Because of the state of things I have zero faith that anything will come out of any investigations.
We are very close if not already there to living in a milit@ry state.
Oh, and what are the chances that the puppeteers or their henchmen also had something to do with missing w0men?
I do think that people are starting to wake up to this, and that many who are in the know and benefited on the lower end of the white collar criminal stuff want change. Everyone likes to eat and no one likes to spend years looking over their shoulder. And no one wants to sacrifice their freedom. Not everyone has to be held accountable for past misdeeds but we need change else we live like the russi@n people at the mercy of the oligarchs.
The trial of the fellow who committed fraud and lost his wife might be a good example of that.