A Globe and Mail reporter investigating allegations of political interference at Alberta’s provincial health authority has been targeted by an anonymous account on X, which posted surreptitiously obtained photographs of her in public settings and described her private movements.
Pictures of Calgary correspondent Carrie Tait meeting two women, who are former political staffers in the government of Premier Danielle Smith, were posted earlier this month by an account calling itself The Brokedown. Details about the photographs were also posted beforehand by a podcaster, who made references in a video to a meal that Ms. Tait attended. He confirmed to The Globe that he was supplied with the photographs in advance of their posting on X.
Separately, someone disguised a phone number to look like Ms. Tait’s mobile number to make calls to multiple people. One photo, posted on July 10, showed Ms. Tait with one of the women in a park with a dog. In another picture, posted two days later, Ms. Tait sat with another woman on a patio at a Mexican restaurant.
The X account was launched this month. In one of its first posts, it promised it would “start exposing Carrie Tait’s sources in the continuing health care saga. You are not going to want to miss this!”. The account was suspended last Wednesday after complaints were filed with the social-media platform, including by Globe reporters.
For the past five months, Ms. Tait has been writing about allegations from Athana Mentzelopoulos, the former chief executive of Alberta Health Services, the agency that administers public health care in the province. In a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed in February, Ms. Mentzelopoulos alleges that she was terminated over an internal investigation that she ordered into procurement issues at the agency.
She says pressure was placed on her by staff in Danielle Smith’s office to take action that would benefit certain private companies. Mentzelopoulos says she was dismissed two days before she was set to brief the province’s Auditor-General. In a statement of defence, the Alberta government said she was fired “because she couldn’t do her job.”
Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s allegations are now the subject of separate investigations by Alberta’s Auditor-General, the RCMP, and retired Manitoba judge Raymond Wyant, who was appointed by the province.
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Two weeks before the photographs were posted online, several contacts of Ms. Tait received phone calls where her number appeared on their call display. While none of the individuals spoke with anyone on the calls – one person answered but nobody replied - all of them reached out to Ms. Tait to ask why she was calling.
An examination of Ms. Tait’s phone records showed no evidence of any outgoing calls, suggesting the number was “spoofed” to make it appear she was calling these individuals.
The Globe’s editor in chief, David Walmsley, condemned the targeting of Ms. Tait.
“Any attempt to interfere with legitimate newsgathering is an attack on the public’s right to know” he said. “The Globe and Mail will continue to pursue this story.”
Kathryn Marshall, a lawyer for the women who appear in the photographs alongside Ms. Carrie Tait, said her clients have also received threatening text messages, which she believes are part of a “stalking” effort to prevent people with links to government from speaking with journalists.