Former Conservative MP Chris Alexander’s allegation that David Pugliese has been a Russian and Soviet intelligence asset is ludicrous.

Former Conservative MP Chris Alexander accused Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese of being a Russian asset at an Oct. 24 Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security meeting. Screenshot via CPAC.

Those of us who know David Pugliese know him to be an upstanding citizen and an excellent journalist, and many of us aspire to be like him.

Most of us know already this is a thankless job, but persevere nonetheless because we understand the bedrock of democracy is a strong, independent, and often adversarial fourth estate.

David Pugliese knows this, and it is evident in practically everything he writes.

This has led him to shine a light on all that the government doesn’t want you to know. In his capacity as one of Canada’s very few defense reporters, David Pugliese has told us about defective airplanes, sexual assault swept under the rug, project delays and cost overruns on new ships, among many others. 

He is also one of the few mainstream journalists to tackle the national embarrassment that is the Victims of Communism monument, as well as the broader, related, and no less embarrassing issue of Canada’s protection of alleged war criminals and Nazi collaborators. Where far too many other journalists have shied away from these matters, David Pugliese has persevered, explaining the complicated and relating the un-relatable. 

But doing so has earned him enemies. He has dealt with threats and often anonymous attacks on his character.

Chris Alexander crossed a line. He made a damning allegation under the cover of parliamentary immunity.

That others present—including parliamentarians as well as at least one self-described investigative journalist—failed to scrutinize Alexander’s preposterous assertion, is itself a damning indictment of the capabilities and intelligence of the national security committee as much as those tasked with assessing and analyzing it. 

It should come as no surprise that those journalists who see in David Pugliese the qualities they wish to emulate would also be the first to recognize just how far-fetched Chris Alexander’s statements truly are.

More than anything else, in attacking the credibility of one of Canada’s best journalists, in doing so without presenting evidence publicly, and from behind a cloak of immunity, Chris Alexander has attacked our profession and our professional credibility. 

To do so as cavalierly and as casually as he did, without the courage to stand by his statement in the public realm, is not merely cowardice of the highest order, but further represents a clear and present danger to our democracy in general, and David Pugliese specifically.

This cannot stand.

Chris Alexander can either apologize to David Pugliese publicly, fully retracting his statement, or he can make the same statement publicly, and show us all his alleged proof.

Signed:

• Taylor C. Noakes - Independent Journalist
• Alex Cosh - Managing editor of News, The Maple
• Jeremy Appel - Independent Journalist and Author
• Duncan Kinney - Editor, The Progress Report
• Moss Robeson - Independent Journalist
• Mark Ames
• Christopher Curtis - Editor in Chief, The Rover
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