Harassing reporters should not be normal

The Globe and Mail’s Carrie Tait has been doing exemplary work reporting on Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the way Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government has treated serious allegations of political interference in that province’s health system.

Her reporting has included breaking stories on a senior health executive, Athana Mentzelopoulos, who was fired as chief executive of Alberta Health Services. Mentzelopoulos says in a lawsuit against the province that she was fired after investigating questionable contracts by AHS — the Smith government maintains Mentzelopoulos was fired for incompetence.

Tait also reported on the firing of the AHS board by the Alberta government on the day the board was to review a report by investigators about improper activity involving AHS. That, and other reporting, has certainly made Tait unpopular with Smith, the Alberta government, and with the governing United Conservative Party.

But now, Tait is herself news.

How?

Because of a phantom Twitter/X account — now suspended — that posted a series of clandestinely obtained photographs of Tait, sometimes with other people she was meeting with, and announced that it would “start exposing Carrie Tait’s sources in the continuing health care saga. You are not going to want to miss this!”

If you think that sounds like an attempt to derail a media investigation into questionable government conduct, you’d be exactly right. It’s also clearly harassment, and it really makes you stop and wonder who exactly would benefit from trying to derail the Globe and Mail’s coverage.

The move is certainly getting broad condemnation, including from the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ).

“These kinds of intimidation tactics have no place in a democratic society,” said CAJ president Brent Jolly in a written statement. “They are assaults on the very foundations of press freedom that are enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms … Targeting a journalist for simply doing their job is a cowardly act that endangers not only the reporter, but also the vital public interest work that journalism represents. Carrie Tait should be saluted for her work — not spoofed or surveilled.”

And that’s why we’re writing about the work being done by a competitor of ours — and work being done in a province other than our own as well.

Because the issue is one that strikes at the heart of what we do — providing objective journalism and commentary that, almost necessarily, occasionally displeases governments. That work should be done without the fear of threats and attacks — and an attack on Tait, if allowed to stand as normal practice, is an attack on all journalists.

That leaves the question of who’s doing the attack.

Once again — who would benefit from derailing Tait’s work?

The Alberta government insists they’re not involved — but at the same time, at first blush, that province’s premier seemed to feel the issue was less than serious.

Asked about the surveillance by a Globe and Mail reporter at a meeting of Canada’s premiers in Huntsville last week, Smith said “I’m not talking about that” — and laughed as she walked away.

Later, she appeared to take the issue more seriously, telling CTV News that, “No one should be harassing anybody, and I don’t comment on sock puppet accounts … I have no idea who’s behind it, and so if there’s criminal harassment, I hope that the RCMP finds them, punishes them to the full extent of the law.”

It’s hard not to agree with Smith, at least on that last point. There are clearly things going on in Alberta provincial politics that are deeply wrong, and anyone involved in this personal attack should certainly face consequences.

» Winnipeg Free Press