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.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith provides an April update related to allegations by former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos. Ms. Tait has been reporting on the situation for five months.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
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 alleges that pressure was placed on her by staff in Ms. Smith’s office to take action that would benefit certain private companies, and that she was dismissed two days before she was set to brief the province’s Auditor-General.
Her allegations have not been tested in court. In a statement of defence, the Alberta government said she was fired “because she couldn’t do her job.”
Ex-CEO of Alberta health authority asks for quick ruling in wrongful dismissal suit
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.
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.”
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The name of The Brokedown account is a play on The Breakdown, an Alberta podcast that has been critical of the Smith government.
Most of the posts on The Brokedown appeared on July 10. One tagged Ms. Tait and one of the women, and made reference to Ms. Tait’s “medication refill,” which the poster said “is ready to be picked up.”
In an interview, Ms. Tait said that, two days before that post, she had picked up a prescription at a Calgary pharmacy.
Two days before The Brokedown posted about Ms. Tait sitting with one of the women at a Mexican restaurant, a podcaster named David Wallace released a video online on July 10. In the video, he named the woman and asked which reporter she had been lunching with. “Did you enjoy your tacos? Was it Taco Tuesday at least?” he said.
In an interview, Mr. Wallace said he had nothing to do with the X account The Brokedown. He said he was made aware of Ms. Tait’s meal through a tip.
“I have an anonymous source. I have what’s known as a rat line, a tip line, and I had a lot of pictures show up,” he said, adding that he had obtained photos of Ms. Tait with one of the women.
“Somebody asked me about this Breakdown or Brokedown Alberta account. Just for upfront clarity, I don’t hide my fucking face for nobody. I like to do my damage out front so everybody knows who I am,” he said.
Mr. Wallace, as well as The Brokedown account, also criticized MLA Peter Guthrie, who had quit cabinet in protest of Alberta’s health care procurement practices.
In his video, Mr. Wallace addressed Mr. Guthrie: “You’re not getting away with this. Any corner you hide in, any hole you dig, it won’t be deep enough,” he said.
Mr. Guthrie is one of the Alberta cabinet ministers who acknowledged accepting free Edmonton Oilers tickets from MHCare Medical, a company that was awarded a $70-million contract by the Alberta government to import children’s pain medication from Turkey. That medicine was deemed unusable because of safety concerns, and the MHCare contract is one of the deals Ms. Mentzelopoulos had asked to be investigated, according to her statement of claim.
Alberta’s then-infrastructure-minister Peter Guthrie said in 2024 he accepted free Edmonton Oilers NHL playoff tickets from MHCare Medical.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
Mr. Guthrie has become an outspoken critic of the Smith government and its dealings with MHCare.
On July 11, The Brokedown account posted an image of an electronic receipt confirming to MHCare that it had sent two hockey tickets to Mr. Guthrie. The e-mail said: “MHCare Group Ltd., your ticket transfer went through.”
In response to questions about the image of the ticket transfer receipt, MHCare said in an e-mailed statement: “No one affiliated with our company has, to our knowledge, ever engaged directly or indirectly with this account.”
Since Ms. Mentzelopoulos’s allegations were made public, MHCare and its chief executive officer, Sam Mraiche, have been “living under the weight of untrue allegations,” the company said in a June statement.
MHCare, tied to allegations involving the Alberta government, says it is being unfairly attacked
Ms. Smith’s verified X page viewed some of Mr. Wallace’s videos, according to the watch history on his account.
“The Premier’s Office has no involvement with this account or Mr. David Wallace,” Ms. Smith’s press secretary, Sam Blackett, told The Globe in an e-mail.
He said that Ms. Smith’s social-media presence is moderated by various staff members. He declined to comment when asked if Ms. Smith had concerns about efforts to intimidate people meeting with a journalist in Alberta.
“The Premier’s Office does not comment on the random postings of anonymous social media accounts that it has no involvement with,” he said.
Kathryn Marshall, a lawyer for the two women who appear in the photographs alongside Ms. 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.
She said the Mounties have been contacted. A spokesperson for the RCMP in Alberta said they could not confirm this.
“I believe that there is someone either on their own or working with a group of others who are clearly engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation of women who either currently work for The Alberta government or formally worked for the Alberta government,” Ms. Marshall said in an interview.
“I can tell you my clients have done nothing wrong. Journalists are allowed to have friends; they’re allowed to go out for drinks with people and go to the dog park with people. The photos themselves don’t illustrate that there was anything wrong that happened, but my clients are obviously disturbed. This is extremely disturbing.”
She said the photos posted online appear to have been taken through private surveillance – an expensive and time-consuming process. Whoever hired this person or people to conduct this surveillance is clearly motivated to put a chill on Ms. Tait and anyone who might be thinking of speaking with her, she said.
“You’ve got to start thinking about, well, what is she writing about, and who would be interested in silencing her?” Ms. Marshall said.
Mr. Wallace has been involved in previous political controversies. For example, in 2022, he told The Canadian Press news agency that he had been hired by a former Alberta justice minister to obtain a CP reporter’s phone logs.
The reporter, Alanna Smith, now works for The Globe. Last May, Mr. Wallace posted a video saying that it wasn’t the former cabinet minister who asked for the phone logs but an intermediary, whom he did not name, who had approached him.