‘Fundamentally undemocratic’: Alberta medical, political and legal experts slam UCP government’s tactics

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CALGARY – Some educators and experts in Alberta say they are fed up with the provincial government trying to discredit and even muzzle them in their areas of expertise.

Several professors, academic experts and even a faculty director told CTV News the province had gone too far in its attack on their work, and even their personalities, after criticizing UCP policies.

Legal expert Lorian Hardcastle says the province’s problems officials and press secretaries – many of whom have six-figure salaries – have gone too far in what she calls “their gas lighting tactics”.

“I personally posted my photo, my employer tagged and my dean tagged (in an employee tweet),” Hardcastle said. “There is also a discrediting of your expertise. I was called an expert in quotes this week only.”

Hardcastle and some of his colleagues at the University of Calgary say that attempts by problem managers to spark anger and confusion on social media are a dangerous ploy.

“There are a few tactics that they employ, the minimization of your expertise, the accusations that you are lying or that you are a surrogate for the NDP,” she said. “What they’re trying to do is silence the critics and that’s fundamentally undemocratic.”

Staff members often use derogatory words to interview medical experts and political scientists with whom they disagree.

Those who have studied or worked for years in their field say they are fed up with being undermined or dismissed just for expressing critical opinions.

Six different professors from two post-secondary institutions in Alberta told CTV News they feel they are targets.

“Basically it has to do with this technique of polarizing to say, ‘you shouldn’t trust anyone who isn’t on our team,’” said Melanee Thomas, a political scientist at the University of California.

“I think our province deserves better than this hostile and truly brutal approach to politics.”

One economist even believes the behavior extends offline.

Lindsay Tedds claims she was called to a University of Calgary office earlier this year to discuss some of her most critical online behaviors. The invitation to the meeting came after a long online exchange with government employees.

Tedds calls timing suspicious.

She also says she knows other people who have been through similar events.

“Almost everyone who’s been through these experiences can’t say for sure where the call is coming from, but it’s very clear who is being targeted,” Tedds said.

The province and the school denied this claim.

A spokesperson for the university said he was “not aware of any instance where the University of Calgary has been asked or asked to silence or handle criticism from provincial government faculty members “.

When asked about the online behavior of staff members, one of Jason Kenney’s press officers sent a statement saying that “problem managers and press officers providing information and correcting misinformation online are common practice. in all governments in Canada “.

Thomas strongly disagrees.

“Most problem managers, you don’t know their name,” she said. “They’re dealing with the problem, and they’re not the problem themselves. It’s not happening anywhere else.”

Thomas said she believed the UCP was partly misleading and was willfully creating anger.

“We know this type of policy actively demobilizes people who don’t like it. I think it’s fair to ask whether or not this demobilization is the goal,” she said.

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