A July report that solicited input from leading experts in typography and graphology determined that the the documents Chris Alexander submitted to a parliamentary committee are forgeries.
At an October 2024 House of Commons committee hearing on Russian disinformation, former Conservative MP Chris Alexander made the extraordinary claim that Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese has been a paid Russian intelligence asset since the 1980s.
Alexander made these comments under the shield of parliamentary privilege, meaning he cannot be sued for defamation, even if he tarnished Pugliese’s reputation through a callous disregard for truth, which a new report suggests is precisely what he did.
Postmedia, which owns the Citizen, defended the long-time defence reporter against Alexander’s “ridiculous and baseless accusations,” and the Canadian Association of Journalists noted the “sad irony” that the former Cabinet minister used hearings into disinformation as a platform to spread disinformation.
A group of journalists, including yours truly, signed and circulated a petition defending Pugliese, “an upstanding citizen and excellent journalist,” from Alexander’s “ludicrous” claims.
In an effort to substantiate his allegation against Pugliese, Alexander submitted a series of documents he claimed were from the Archives of the State Security Committee in Kyiv, Ukraine, identifying Pugliese, code-named “Stuart,” as a potential Russian state asset.
“In a nutshell, these records document a KGB operation to talent spot, recruit, develop and run as an agent a Canadian citizen who has been a prominent journalist in this country for over three decades,” Alexander said.
At the time, Pugliese said he wasn’t aware of whether the documents are authentic or not, but noted that they list him as residing in Ottawa in 1984. Pugliese didn’t live in Ottawa then.
Independent researcher Giuseppe Bianchin conducted a forensic analysis of these documents over a span of seven months, soliciting expertise from leading typologists and graphologists. They concluded that the documents Alexander submitted to the committee are forgeries. (more...)
Former MP used fabricated documents to accuse reporter David Pugliese of being a Russian asset
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