13 Comments
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Blake MacLeod's avatar

The democratic ousting of Viktor Oban in Hungary aside, recent events in Ireland, the covert interference in Slovenia’s recent elections that led to the ousting of the progressive government of Pres. Musar, and countless other smaller, but no less telling false-flag casualty events, attacks and key-figure assassinations, global stage stakes are quite clearly much higher than anyone outside the intelligence community is aware of.

In this, Danielle Smith is way out of her league, and it is encouraging to me that she is working with CSIS on this. There are clear indications that the feds are taking these threats very seriously. We all should.

Valerie Jobson's avatar

I would not rely on Smith to do anything useful, she is a separatist herself based on her repeated behaviour. She is out of her league pretending to be a federalist but she is an expert at making a huge mess on her way out, as with the school board and her Wildrose leadership.

CSIS may have to work around her, not through her.

SquizzRadical's avatar

It's better to keep your enemies closer, so they can "work" with her, while working through her. Intelligence is a game of deception.

Frau Katze's avatar

Maybe she welcomes foreign interference.

Donna Sinclair's avatar

Thanks for this clear picture. We all need to be alert, in or out of Alberta.

Tom  Deligiannis's avatar

Presumably the Feds can and will also monitor foreign interference in this case, even if Alberta chooses to ignore the threat?

A Canuck's avatar

Thank you for this.

It really does seem that Smith's political party has been consumed the Trojan Horse that was swallowed by the old Progressive Conservative Party when it merged with Smith's Wildrose Party.

Canadians really need to wake up to the dangers posed by what Karl Popper called "toleration of the intolerable". Essentially, this refers to bad actors that take advantage of open and democratic societies to advance illiberal agendas inimical to the continued survival of the democratic polity that enabled them to grow in the first place.

Catherine Beck's avatar

Good summary. Thank you.

Countries like Saudi Arabia, Israel and China could also involve themselves in such disinformation wars, based on whatever benefit they foresaw - or on the desire to create havoc.

This is not even to mention nasty tech oilgarchs. like Musk and Thiel...

Valerie Jobson's avatar

Tommy Robinson has been arrested in the UK under the Terrorism Act. He was just in Moscow meeting Musk's father and tweeting about the violence in Belfast. If he gets jailed for terrorism this time, I wonder if his associates such as Ezra Levant are vulnerable to such charges. I hope they are being closely monitored in Canada? Plus Elon Musk himself.

As if's avatar

Foreign interference is leftists go-to wail when elections don't go their way. It's arrogant, as it assumes anyone not voting their way must be an imbecile, that seeing one online post by a Russian is how they decide to vote. The classic example is Hilary Clinton's delusion that she lost the election because Russians made mean online posts about her, and not that she was one of the most despised politicians in America.

The only actual foreign interference possible is 1) altering electronic votes, or 2) secret foreign funding of one side. Thats it.

Geoff Tanner's avatar

Calling bullshit on this one. I don't doubt for a minute that well-funded, skilled operatives can get memes, think pieces Etc out in front of the public and that pretty significant portions of that public don't spend a lot of time or even have the time to spend picking all that stuff apart. Emotions are powerful and not that hard to manipulate. And social media has amplified this enormously. I think you're in denial if you don't think this is happening.

Another Anon's avatar

CSIS does not have the capacity or interest in reporting on regional interests.

Jack Hill's avatar

Dear Wesley - after years of living in Alberta -The only sure thing about the Alberta referendum questions on separatism is that you are living in a world of rational thinking with concern for the common good. This is not the concern of those transactional players that see one thing - What is in it for me? No amount of $ is enough!

The good news story is that those who”power over” fight with other forces of malcontent not interested in a just society.They will eventually fail. Utopian? No, because true intelligence is about communication that demands mutual trust that will always prevail in the end over transactional tyrants.The dynamics of meaning making in relationship building is the secret sauce.