Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been granted security clearance to receive briefings from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, her office confirmed.
The premier’s office provided few other details but says in a statement that the clearance allows her to be briefed on national security matters.
“The premier has now obtained her top-secret clearance in order to receive briefings on issues related to national security,” said Smith’s press secretary, Sam Blackett.
In response to questions seeking more information, Blackett referred to Smith saying in March that she was seeking the higher clearance so she could be aware of any foreign interference attempts in the province.
Smith said she was frustrated Mounties were not briefing her government about the issue, so she was seeking an alternative.
“We have some deficiencies, and we’re going to do everything we can to fill them,” Smith told the legislature.
The Privy Council Office, which reports to Prime Minister Mark Carney, is responsible for issuing security clearances to provincial officials.
The office wasn’t immediately able to respond to questions Thursday.
A spokesperson said in March that sharing information with authorities outside Ottawa would “strengthen Canada’s overall resilience against national security threats.”
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“Increased sharing of CSIS information helps parliamentarians, other orders of governments, industry, academia, and communities better understand and recognize threats, allowing them to protect themselves, their particular equities, and Canada more generally,” it said.
Mike Ellis, Smith’s public safety minister, told reporters Thursday that he has also applied for higher security clearance.
“It’s, as you would know, a very staged process,” Ellis said. “Looking forward to hearing back.”
Ellis said a safe room has been built in the legislature for Smith to receive the briefings, a condition of her approval.
Smith’s security clearance comes after a report was released this week that says some foreign actors, including a network of Kremlin-aligned websites in Russia, are increasingly generating content riddled with disinformation about Alberta’s separatist movement.
The report found content on the websites routinely portrayed Alberta separatism to be more popular with the public than believed and torqued underlying grievances with Ottawa that many supporters and separatist leaders cite for wanting to quit Confederation.
“The content does not appear to be aimed at informing Canadian readers so much as amplifying a perception of Canadian instability, weakening trust in federal institutions, and encouraging the view that Canada’s internal cohesion is fragile,” says the report from a team of researchers and published by DisinfoWatch, a Canadian organization that monitors foreign disinformation.
The report also raises concerns about American influencers and media commentators, including Steve Bannon, a former advisor of U.S. President Donald Trump, for spreading disinformation about the separatist movement.
“Many command audiences in the tens of millions, giving their messaging significant potential to influence perceptions among Canadians and Albertans, and their reach far extends that of traditional media and official institutions,” the report says.
Asked about the report in question period, Ellis said he has had concerns about foreign interference in the separatist movement but that RCMP told him “no credible information” has been received about it.
Ellis said the “situation is extremely fluid,” due to a recent privacy breach involving a leaked voter list that a separatist group made publicly available, sharing the names and addresses of nearly three million Albertans online.
The breach is being investigated by RCMP and Elections Alberta, and Ellis said he hopes Mounties “thoroughly look into this matter.”
Opposition NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi told reporters he’s concerned about Smith’s ties to separatist leaders and whether the premier would use her security clearance appropriately.
“Let’s be blunt, there are no secrets that the premier holds from the separatists,” Nenshi said.
“I hope she’ll use it well.”
Earlier this week, Stay Free Alberta, a group looking to put separation on a ballot, submitted its petition for a referendum question. The group is led by Mitch Sylvestre, a constituency association president for Smith’s United Conservative Party.
Smith has said if the signatures are verified, she would put the question to a vote this fall.
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