Earlier this spring, CP\u2019s reporter noted in his story, Smith demanded the clearance \u201cso she could be aware of any foreign interference attempts in the province.\u201d This hardly seems necessary. All one really needs to do is pay attention to the Twitter\/X and Truth Social feeds of U.S. President Donald Trump, his cabinet and family members. But, whatever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back in March, Canadian security and intelligence expert Wesley Wark described<\/a> Smith\u2019s wish as \u201cboth na\u00efve and an admission.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe na\u00efve part is that foreign interference will happen if any foreign entity, state or non-state, decides to pursue such a campaign in its own self-interest,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe confession part in Smith\u2019s request for a security clearance is a clear acknowledgement that provincial bodies have no capacity to understand the prospects of foreign interference targeting Alberta.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n On its face, the case for giving Smith such a security clearance \u2013 \u201cTop Secret\u201d is a real thing in Canada, by the way \u2013 does not seem like a strong one.<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s been as an apparatchik for foreign-funded ideological \u201cthink tanks,\u201d an economics student in a university department heavily influenced by foreign ideologues, or as an enabler of the Alberta separatist movement from which some amateur diplomats are actively trying to negotiate the dismemberment of Canada with foreign officials, throughout her career Alberta\u2019s premier has run in circles that want to influence, dominate, break up or even take over Canada.<\/p>\n Is she a separatist herself? She says not. She claims to believe in an oxymoronic and vaguely defined sovereign Alberta within a united Canada. She certainly acts like a committed, pedal-to-the-metal separatist, though, one who has taken a deep draught of MAGA Kool-Aid.\u00a0<\/p>\n The foreign influencers Smith has worked for and with, however, are by and large from the corporate sector of the United States, although certainly some of the people she posed with for selfies when she raced down to Mar-a-Lago last January to be at President Trump\u2019s side had connections with some of the U.S. Government\u2019s alphabet security agencies. \u00a0<\/p>\n Canadian media seem to imagine that influence from non-state actors like foreign corporations, no matter how potentially harmful, is innocent and benign simply by merit of the fact it does not originate with an official government agency. This is, of course, nonsense.<\/p>\n In addition, it appears to be very difficult for Canadians to admit that the country on the other side of the world\u2019s longest undefended border may no longer have our interests at heart, let alone might want to destroy our country \u2013 despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.\u00a0<\/p>\n Notwithstanding Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s apparent road-to-Damascus moment on this topic, one suspects it hasn\u2019t quite sunk in with the agencies that are charged with protecting Canadian national security. Smith\u2019s security vetting, whatever its nature was, may have looked harder at her alleged Ukrainian great-grandfather\u2019s loyalties than her own.<\/p>\n Yet as Dr. Wark observed. There is \u201chuge potential for foreign interference from the United States in the separatist process in Alberta, not least given U.S. attitudes towards Canada and all the 51st state rhetoric emerging from the White House and right-wing social media platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n Even without her ideological history, though, Smith is temperamentally a bad risk for a security clearance. She is a political opportunist and a blabbermouth. Conservative commentator Andrew Coyne recently compared her to a magpie. There is no way, given secret information she could use to her political advantage, that she will be able to resist the temptation. This, we can be confident, Canadian security agencies understand.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is not completely clear from the Internet \u2013 that deep well of questionable information about such matters \u2013 who is responsible for giving security clearances to Canadian provincial politicians, who does the scut work, and what the nature of that investigation is. Was Smith interrogated or did she just fill out a form? I have no idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) Government Security Screening program investigates and provides security assessments on persons whose employment with the Government of Canada requires them to have lawful access to classified information or sensitive sites, such as major ports, airports, nuclear facilities or the Parliamentary Precinct,\u201d the federal government says<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n But is the same process applied to provincial politicians? This is not clear.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to CP, \u201cthe Privy Council Office, which reports to Prime Minister Mark Carney, is responsible for issuing security clearances to provincial officials.\u201d (Emphasis added.) It is doubtful, however, that the PCO has the expertise or the manpower to actually conduct a security clearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Nick Seebruch, editor<\/p>\n