Story by John Mazerolle • 1h ago
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is threatening legal action against the CBC if the corporation doesn't retract and apologize for recent reporting about the premier and COVID-19-related criminal cases related to last year's Coutts, Alta., blockade.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks at an event for the Canada Strong and Free Network in Ottawa on March 23. Smith has threatened legal action against the CBC if the corporation doesn't retract and apologize for some of its reporting about her by April 28.© Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
In a letter addressed to CBC editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon and verified by CBC News, lawyer Munaf Mohamed, writing on Smith's behalf, demands the corporation retract its reporting and publish an apology online and in news broadcasts "informing readers that it has no evidence of dishonesty or direct contact between the premier (or anyone in her office) and Alberta Crown prosecutors about any specific COVID-19-related prosecutions."
The letter, dated Sunday, gives a deadline of April 28 before Smith may take legal action under the Defamation Act.
At an unrelated news conference on Monday, Smith read from a written statement, saying: "As you know, there's been a great deal of inaccurate, misleading and likely defamatory reporting about my discussions with justice officials regarding amnesty for COVID prosecutions.
"I have been clear that neither I, nor anyone within my staff, have contacted any Crown prosecutors, as has been alleged."
Asked for comment, CBC's head of public affairs Chuck Thompson said in an email, "As we've said all along, we stand by our journalism on this story and, if necessary, will defend it in court."
Related video: Alberta premier says she will no longer comment on Crown prosecutor controversy (The Canadian Press) Duration 2:08 View on Watch
The letter says a March 23 article, headlined "Danielle Smith discussed COVID charges 'almost weekly' with justice officials, according to leaked call," and other recent articles and broadcasts "transparently seek to sensationalize allegations already fully addressed by the premier and resuscitate a false and defamatory narrative against the premier, her office, Alberta Crown prosecutors, and the administration of justice in Alberta."
'Irresponsible reporting'
The leaked call reported on in the story is a phone conversation between Smith and Artur Pawlowski, a controversial Calgary street pastor. It happened in early January, just weeks before his trial in Lethbridge, Alta., on Feb. 2.
Pawlowski faces charges of criminal mischief and an offence under Alberta's Critical Infrastructure Defence Act related to last year's blockade in Coutts, Alta., which paralyzed Alberta's main U.S. border crossing for more than two weeks. A judge is set to deliver a verdict in early May.
The letter to CBC also calls attention to a Jan. 19 article headlined "Alberta premier's office contacted Crown prosecution about Coutts cases: sources," and calls it "irresponsible reporting by the CBC, presumably to sensationalize a political narrative."
The letter says that "absent an apology, retraction and correction from the CBC," the premier will not be commenting.
Smith has continuously denied that she or her office engaged in any inappropriate conduct regarding COVID-related prosecutions.
"As I have previously stated, I had my staff work with the Ministry of Justice, to determine if anything could be done to grant amnesty for those charged with non-violent, non-firearms COVID-related charges," Smith said in a tweet on March 29 that referred to reporting by CBC News.
"As also indicated previously in multiple interviews, I received a legal brief from the Ministry of Justice recommending against pursuing amnesty further, as several matters involving this issue were and still are before the courts. I have followed that advice."
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Who is this guy? By now you may have heard that Premier Danielle Smith is in hot water this week for things she said to him back in January.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic Pawlowski was more or less playing chicken with AHS and the Alberta government over things like masks, holding indoor events, and so on. He was convicted of contempt of court in 2021 for some of these antics, but the conviction was later overturned.
Pawlowski eventually escalated to the point of getting mixed up in last February’s Coutts border blockade. That border crossing to the United States was blocked by pro-COVID protesters for nearly two weeks. When the RCMP finally negotiated an end to the blockade, and people were about to disperse, Pawlowski roused the protesters back, calling out that “for freedom to be preserved, people must be willing to sacrifice their lives,” and “if this is our Alamo then so be it!”
It was not their Alamo, of course, because that is insane. The RCMP eventually cleared the blockade without anyone shooting at each other—though they did arrest eleven protesters who the RCMP allege were conspiring to kill cops. And whew, those eleven certainly had a lot of guns with them.
Pawlowski himself got hit with charges under CIDA, the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, an Alberta law ironically put together by the UCP to put the boot to environmentalists and labour activists. And you might think that’s just desserts, but a crackdown was exactly what Pawlowski wanted. Now sporting the cred of a real enemy of the state, Pawlowski’s prominence on the far-right and anti-vax circuits soared. Fox News’ Tucker Carlson praised him on air and argued that Pawlowski’s experience was proof of Justin Trudeau’s horrible tyranny. Pawlowski has parlayed his arrest into a gig as a minor celebrity on weirdo right-wing media.
Now according the Premier, she has been in constant contact with prosecutors, urging them to reconsider whether Pawlowski’s charges are in the public interest, and also she has been in “almost weekly” contact with justice department officials looking to see, in her words, “if anything could be done to grant amnesty” to Pawlowski and other COVID scofflaws. But according to the Premier, she also hasn’t been in constant contact with prosecutors, or even spoken to them at all. One story for the far-right and the Rebel News watchers, and a completely different story for the rest of us.
As the youths say, sus.
Here’s the thing though: if you’re not from around here or the only Alberta news you get is when we have a cameo on Fox, maybe you only know of Pawlowski as this pro-COVID guy constantly getting arrested over violating public health rules. But if you’ve been involved in politics or activism in these parts for long—especially around Calgary—you’re probably more familiar with Pawlowski’s long and filthy history as a venomous anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ bigot.
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network has a roundup of some of Pawlowski’s more notorious antics on their blog. It’s some real foul stuff, and that’s only the highlights. And Danielle Smith is far from the first Alberta conservative to make the mistake of getting mixed up with him. Back in 2014, Ric McIver got roasted in the PC leadership race for attending Pawlowski’s “March for Jesus” for years in a row. (Ric is still an MLA—he represents Calgary-Hays.)
That’s back when Danielle Smith was the leader of the Wildrose Party. Back then Danielle Smith was unequivocal about Pawlowski’s message and McIver’s entanglement with him, saying: “it’s beyond the pale. It’s extreme. I think Albertans expect that political leaders will stand up against this intolerance.”
I wonder if she misspoke then too.
Sundries
- The writ for the election hasn’t been drawn up but oppo research season is already here. Our first dropout of the season: Torry Tanner, the UCP candidate for Lethbridge-West, who in a video posted online claimed that teachers are showing pornography to children and talking them into changing their gender. Someone at the UCP party office must have gotten nervous about that because Tanner was out of the race barely a day after the video started getting passed around. The grim thing is that what Tanner was saying is actually the UCP party line—conspiracy theories about teachers ‘making your kids queer’ have been a foundation of the UCP policy book since the conflict over GSAs in 2019.
- 1630 Albertans died from drug poisoning in 2022. While it is the second highest death ever in the history of the drug poisoning crisis the government put out a statement saying it is "cautiously optimistic about the continued downward trend since the peak in late 2021."
- The UCP continue their habit of stuffing their friends and allies into every nook and crevice of Alberta’s public institutions by appointing them to university boards, crown corporation boards and various other boards. The latest order in council has 72 appointments, at least two of whom are former PC MLAs.
- The Office of the Child and Youth Advovate is legally mandated to review the deaths of children and youth in care and they just released their biggest report ever. Fifteen deaths, nine of them from drug poisoning, 12 of them being Indigenous. Our editor wrote up a Twitter thread that summarized the report, read it here.
- Video has been released of an Edmonton cop slamming a person in handcuffs head into the ground after they tried to stomp on the officer's foot. Duncan spoke with a former police chief from the lower mainland about whether excessive force was used.
Jim Storrie
http://www.progressalberta.ca/
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