[rad-green] Consortium News Sends Libel Notices to Canadian Signals Intelligence Agency and Major Television Network

*https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/21/consortium-news-sends-libel-notices-to-canadian-signals-intelligence-agency-and-major-televison-network/
<https://consortiumnews.com/2020/01/21/consortium-news-sends-libel-notices-to-canadian-signals-intelligence-agency-and-major-televison-network/>*


*Consortium News          January 21, 2020 *

Consortium News Sends Libel Notices to Canadian Signals Intelligence Agency
and Major Television Network
*Consortium News has sent libel notices to a Canadian spy agency and major
broadcaster after their reports said CN is part of a Russian-directed
propaganda campaign targeting Canadian leaders.*
*Canada’s NSA and Global News Said CN Leads **‘Cyber-Influence Campaign’
Directed by Moscow*

*By Joe Lauria <https://consortiumnews.com/tag/joe-lauria/>*
*Special to Consortium News*

*Consortium News has sent libel notices to the Communications Security
Establishment (CSE), Canada’s version of the U.S. National Security Agency,
and to a major Canadian television network, Global News, for a report that
said Consortium News was “part of a cyber-influence campaign directed by
Russia.”*

Based on a CSE leak of a secret document, Global News’ website said
<https://globalnews.ca/news/6258755/intelligence-reports-canadian-leaders-attacked-cyber-campaigns/>in
a Dec. 10, 2019 article
<https://globalnews.ca/news/6258755/intelligence-reports-canadian-leaders-attacked-cyber-campaigns/>
 entitled, “‘Canadian eyes only’ intelligence reports say Canadian leaders
attacked in cyber campaigns,” that *Consortium News* led this campaign.
“The first attack was a February 2017 report in the ‘online Consortium
News’ followed ‘in quick succession’ by pro-Russian English language and
Russian-language online media, the CSE report says,” according to Global
News.

A caption on the Global News site under a screenshot of the Feb. 27,
2017 *Consortium
News* article reads
<https://globalnews.ca/news/6258755/intelligence-reports-canadian-leaders-attacked-cyber-campaigns/>
: “A CSE report says Consortium News was part of an attack from Russia on
Chrystia Freeland’s reputation.” Freeland was the then Canadian foreign
minister and is now deputy prime minister.

Another caption under a Dec. 10 Global News broadcast
<https://globalnews.ca/news/6258755/intelligence-reports-canadian-leaders-attacked-cyber-campaigns/>,
which also shows the *CN*  screenshot, says: “Russia is one of numerous
hostile foreign states that have recently targeted Canada with online smear
campaigns.”

Global News’ website, quoting from the CSE report, said:

“ ‘A small number of nation states’ are involved in cyber campaigns against
Western democracy, but the national security assessment warns the threat
and range of actors involved are growing. And the tactics used by Canada’s
adversaries include ‘human intelligence operations,’ online and cyber
influence campaigns and the use of ‘state-sponsored or influenced media.'”

<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CN-on-Global-News.png>

*CN* portrayed on Global News broadcast as part of “Russian cyber
influence” campaign that “targeted high-profile Canadian politicians.”

The libel notices were sent by a Toronto law firm on behalf of *Consortium
News, *which seeks a retraction of all mention of *Consortium News* and an
apology. *CN *is making a formal Access to Information Act request
(Canada’s Freedom of Information Act) to obtain a copy of the CSE report.
Part of the CSE report, classified “SECRET CEO,” CEO meaning
<https://www.cse-cst.gc.ca/en/node/1826/html/26484>  Canadian Eyes Only,
was broadcast by Global News.

Titled, “Cyber Influence Events against Canadian Politicians,” the report
says:

“In early 2017 and Spring 2018, sources linked to Russia popularized MFA
Freeland’s family history, very likely intended to cause personal
reputational damage in order to discredit the Government of Canada’s
ongoing diplomatic and military support for Ukraine, to delegitimize
Canada’s decision to enact the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign
Offices Act, and the 2018 expulsion of several Russian diplomats.”

The Act referred to is Canada’s version of the controversial Magnitsky Act
passed by the U.S. Congress.

Global News’ website reported:

“The attacks on Freeland, who is now deputy prime minister, were partly
meant to combat her support of laws targeting corrupt Russian oligarchs and
leaders, the CSE records say, and included allegations that her Ukrainian
grandfather had edited a newspaper with ties to Nazis. …

The cyber-campaign directed by Russia involved distortions of facts and was
timed, targeted and, according to the CSE, ‘pushed the narrative to suggest
that Freeland’s family immigrated to Canada as part of a wave of
Nazi-collaborators.’

The first attack was a February 2017 report in the ‘online Consortium News’
followed ‘in quick succession’ by pro-Russian English language and
Russian-language online media, the CSE report says.

The CSE records obtained by Global News appear to document for the first
time direct allegations from Canada’s government that Russia directed these
cyber campaigns.”

<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CSE-mention-of-CN.png>

*Portion of CSE report mentioning Consortium News as broadcast by Global
News.*

*The CN Article*

The Feb. 27, 2017 *Consortium News* article
<https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/27/a-nazi-skeleton-in-the-family-closet/>,
written by journalist Arina Tuskanova exclusively for *CN*, was titled “A
Nazi Skeleton in the Family Closet.” It reveals that Freeland had lied
about her grandfather’s past as an editor of a Nazi newspaper in occupied
Poland during the war.

Tuskanova reported:

“Last Aug. 24, reflecting on so-called Black Ribbon Day, which lumps
together the crimes of Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler (with Stalin getting
top billing), [Freeland] wrote
<https://twitter.com/cafreeland/status/768200667940872192> on Twitter,
‘Thinking of my grandparents Mykhailo & Aleksandra Chomiak on Black Ribbon
Day. They were forever grateful to Canada for giving them refuge and they
worked hard to return freedom and democracy to Ukraine. I am proud to
honour their memory today.’
<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-9.jpg>

In her autobiography
<http://csweb.brookings.edu/content/research/essays/2015/myukraine.html>,
Freeland presents her grandparents in the following way: ‘My maternal
grandparents fled western Ukraine after Hitler and Stalin signed their
non-aggression pact in 1939. They never dared to go back, but they stayed
in close touch with their brothers and sisters and their families, who
remained behind.’
<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-10.jpg>

According to Freeland, her grandfather Mykhailo Chomiak was ‘a lawyer and
journalist before the Second World War, but they [her grandparents] knew
the Soviets would invade western Ukraine (and) fled.’ After the war, her
mother was born in a refugee camp in Germany before the family immigrated
to western Canada, Freeland wrote. …

Chrystia Freeland’s dark family secret is that her grandfather, Mykhailo
Chomiak, faithfully served Nazi Germany right up to its surrender, and
Chomiak’s family only moved to Canada after the Third Reich was defeated by
the Soviet Union’s Red Army and its allies – the U.S. and Great Britain.

Mykhailo Chomiak was not a victim of the war – he was on the side of the
German aggressors who collaborated with Ukrainian nationalists in killing
Russians, Jews, Poles and other minorities. Former journalist Freeland
chose to whitewash her family history to leave out her grandfather’s
service to Adolf Hitler. Of course, if she had told the truth, she might
never have achieved a successful political career in Canada. Her fierce
hostility toward Russia also might be viewed in a different light.
<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/PHOTO-2-Centre-Michael-Chomiak-and-wife-Alexandra.png>

Michael Chomiak and wife Alexandra, with their children in Canada in 1952.
Freeland’s mother Halyna is second from left.

*Freeland’s Grandfather*

According to Canadian sources, Chomiak graduated from Lviv University in
western Ukraine with a Master’s Degree in Law and Political Science. He
began a career with the Galician newspaper  *Dilo *(Action), published in
Lviv. After the start of World War II, the Nazi administration appointed
Chomiak to be editor of the newspaper *Krakivski Visti* (News of Krakow).

So the truth appears to be that Chomiak moved from Ukraine to Nazi-occupied
Poland in order to work for the Third Reich under the command of
Governor-General Hans Frank <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Frank>, the
man who organized the Holocaust in Poland. Chomiak’s work was directly
supervised by Emil Gassner, the head of the press department in the Polish
General Government. …

So, it appears Freeland’s grandfather – rather than being a helpless victim
– was given a prestigious job to spread Nazi propaganda, praising Hitler
from a publishing house stolen from Jews and given to Ukrainians who shared
the values of Nazism. …

While it is true that the sins of a grandfather should not be visited on
his descendants, Freeland should not have misled the public on history of
such importance, especially when her deceptions also concealed how she
partly developed her world view.”

*A Non-Denial Denial*
<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Freeland.jpg>

Chrystia Freeland. (Flickr)

A week after the *Consortium News* story appeared, *The Globe and
Mail, *Canada’s
largest newspaper, reported
<https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/freeland-warns-canadians-to-beware-of-russian-disinformation/article34227707/>
on
March 6, 2017 that: “Recently a number of stories have appeared in
pro-Putin regime websites, calling Ms. Freeland ‘Canada’s fiercely
anti-Russian Foreign Affairs Minister’ and alleging her grandfather,
Michael Chomiak, was a Nazi propagandist in Poland.”

Freeland was asked that day at a press conference in Ottawa about the
story. She evaded the question about her grandfather and said
<https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/freeland-warns-canadians-to-beware-of-russian-disinformation/article34227707/>:
“I don’t think it’s a secret [that] American officials have publicly said,
and even [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel has publicly said, that there
were efforts on the Russian side to destabilize Western democracies, and I
think it shouldn’t come as a surprise if these same efforts were used
against Canada.”

On the very next day, March 7, a *Globe and Mail *headline read: “Freeland
knew her grandfather was editor of Nazi newspaper.”

The newspaper reported:
<https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/freeland-knew-her-grandfather-was-editor-of-nazi-newspaper/article34236881/>

“Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland knew for more than two decades
that her maternal Ukrainian grandfather was the chief editor of a Nazi
newspaper in occupied Poland that vilified Jews during the Second World
War…. Ms. Freeland, who has paid tribute to her maternal grandparents in
articles and books, helped edit a scholarly article in the Journal of
Ukrainian Studies in 1996 that revealed her grandfather, Michael Chomiak,
was a Nazi propagandist for Krakivski Visti (Krakow News).” …

‘Dating back many years, the Minister has supported her uncle’s efforts to
study and publish on this difficult chapter in her late grandfather’s
past,’ press secretary Alexander Lawrence said in an e-mail Tuesday
evening. … [Freeland] did not directly respond to questions about whether
the stories about Mr. Chomiak were true. When The Globe asked her office on
Monday to refute the allegation, Mr. Lawrence responded: ‘People should be
questioning where this information comes from, and the motivations behind
it.'”

Two days later, on March 9, 2017, Robert Parry, the late founder of *Consortium
News, *wrote:

“On Feb, 27, Consortiumnews.com published an article describing
misrepresentations by Canada’s new Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland about
her Ukrainian maternal grandfather whom she has portrayed as a hero who
struggled ‘to return freedom and democracy to Ukraine’ but left out that he
was a Nazi propagandist whose newspaper justified the slaughter of Jews. …

Over the next week, the article entitled ‘A Nazi Skeleton in the Family
Closet’
<https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/27/a-nazi-skeleton-in-the-family-closet/>
by
journalist Arina Tsukanova (which I personally edited and fact-checked)
circulated enough that Freeland was asked about it by the Canadian news
media. As often happens these days, Freeland chose not to tell the truth
but rather portrayed the article as part of a Russian propaganda and
disinformation campaign. …

Yet, instead of fessing up and acknowledging these facts, Freeland chose to
dissemble and slander journalists who were doing their job. And the smears
didn’t entirely stop. … This pattern has become all too common in the West,
to insult and discredit anyone who doesn’t accept the ‘groupthinks’ about
the New Cold War. Just as the major news media marched in lockstep over the
Iraq-WMD falsehoods, so it has been toeing the line on the hysteria over
supposed ‘Russian propaganda’ and ‘fake news.’

*Timing*

The timing of the CSE report and the Global News broadcast regarding a
three-year old *Consortium News* article is unclear. A Global News reporter
said
<https://globalnews.ca/news/6258755/intelligence-reports-canadian-leaders-attacked-cyber-campaigns/>
in
the Dec. 10 broadcast
<https://globalnews.ca/news/6258755/intelligence-reports-canadian-leaders-attacked-cyber-campaigns/>
that
the CSE report was “prepared ahead” of the Oct. 2019 Canadian federal
election.

After winning
<https://globalnews.ca/news/6063902/freeland-wins-university-rosedale/>
re-election
in her downtown Toronto constituency, Freeland was named
<https://www.businessinsider.com/freeland-named-deputy-prime-minister-in-trudeau-new-cabinet-2019-11>
deputy prime minister a month later. A month after that, she was tabbed to
head a powerful cabinet post, that in the words of one analyst quoted
<https://ipolitics.ca/2019/12/23/cabinet-committee-membership-reinforces-view-of-freeland-as-trudeaus-most-trusted-minister-strategists/>
 by* iPOLITICS, *means, “Chrystia Freeland is now functionally the prime
minister.”

  *A Globe and Mail headline read:*
*“Freeland knew her grandfather was editor of Nazi newspaper.”*

The date on the *CN* front page of the screenshot taken by Global News for
its report was Dec. 2, 2019. On that date *Consortium News *republished an
article
<https://consortiumnews.com/2019/12/02/yes-ukraine-meddled-in-the-2016-us-election/>
by
Yasha Levine with the headline, “Yes, Ukraine Meddled in the 2016 US
Election.”

Global News Reporter Sam Cooper on the broadcast (transcript)
<https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JcoLNEJX_i31t-jwyvqfhrc2OrFApKtJ> implies
that the  *Consortium News* *article in question
<https://consortiumnews.com/2017/02/27/a-nazi-skeleton-in-the-family-closet/>*
“amplified”
and “distorted” the true fact, admitted by Cooper, that Freeland’s
grandfather was editor of a Nazi newspaper “making it appear that the whole
family was connected to Nazi activity.”  Cooper also said:

“Canada has plans in place to combat cyber influence. We don’t know a lot
about the plans but the records do say all Canadians need to be aware that
they can be targeted. Whether you’re a government official or a voter or a
company owner, anyone. You’re a target and that can come down to clicking
on the wrong links in your email. Anything really, and these attacks are on
the rise and they’re really trying to undermine democracy.”

Global News made no effort to contact *Consortium News* for comment before
it published its article and aired its broadcast.

*‘It Looks So Real’*

That may have been because on Global News’ broadcast, the presenter says
<https://drive.google.com/open?id=1JcoLNEJX_i31t-jwyvqfhrc2OrFApKtJ>: “It
looks so real, that’s the thing, lots of people get fooled because it looks
like a legitimate news source.”

*Consortium News *is very real, founded in 1995 by Parry, a former
investigative reporter for the Associated Press and *Newsweek *who broke
some of the biggest Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s, revealing the
identity of Oliver North and his role in the scandal.

Parry began *Consortium News *after some of his most consequential stories
were suppressed by his corporate news editors. His idea was to provide a
publication for a consortium of journalists whose work, often critical of
the U.S., was similarly suppressed by their editors.

Parry set up the Consortium for Independent Journalism, Inc. a registered
non-profit organization, which publishes *Consortium News**.* It does not
receive or accept a penny from any government, corporation or advertiser.
It is totally funded by its readers. Its editorial decisions are
independent.

*Consortium News *is today created by a consortium of journalists,
academics, freelance writers, former intelligence agency professionals and
an independent video producer. Most have served at the highest levels of
their professions.

*CN*‘s deputy editor is a former *Wall Street Journal* and Dow Jones
Newswire editor. Its columnists include a former Asia editor for *The
International Herald Tribune;* a professor of Middle East politics at the
University of California; and two former Central Intelligence Agency
officials. One delivered Oval Office briefings to President Ronald Reagan
and President George H.W. Bush. The other led the capture of al-Qaeda
militant *Abu Zubaydah*.

*Global News made no effort to contact Consortium News for comment before
it published its article and aired its broadcast.*

The executive producer of *Consortium News*‘ webcast *CN Live! *was a
tenured professor in post-production in Paris, teaches at film schools in
Sydney and has worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

*Consortium News*‘ editor-in-chief is a veteran journalist with decades of
experience in some of the most powerful Establishment media. His first
professional job was with *The New York Times* in 1976.

In 1990 he began reporting on international affairs from United Nations
Headquarters in New York for numerous newspapers, including the *Daily
Mail* and
the *Daily Telegraph* in Britain, as well as six years for *The Boston
Globe* and six and a half years for *The Wall Street Journal.*

The *Consortium* editor was an investigative reporter for the *Sunday Times* of
London Insight team and has made numerous media appearances, including on
the BBC World Service, CNN and ABC’s *Good Morning America.*

He was the UN correspondent from 1994 to 2003 for Southam News, a Canadian
newspaper chain that owned the *Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver
Sun,* and several other papers. The former Canadian media conglomerate
CanWest bought Southam amid  controversy
<https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/canwest-set-to-launch-news-hub/article25277827/>in
2000. The editor worked for CanWest while it also owned Global News (from
from 1997 to 2009.)

The *Consortium* editor is co-author of a book with former U.S. Senator
Mike Gravel, a Quebec descendant, who is a member of *Consortium News*‘
board. Gravel was close personal friends with former Canadian Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau. Gravel vacationed with Trudeau at Christmas 1977
at a ski resort in Colorado.

<https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Trudeau-Gravel-in-Colorado.png>

From “A Political Odyssey” by Mike Gravel and Joe Lauria, Seven Stories
Press, NY 2009

The signals intelligence agency of the government of Justin Trudeau has
accused an independent news organization, on whose board sits a close
friend of the prime minister’s late father, of being “directed” by a
foreign power.

*Consortium*‘s board members also include Pentagon Papers whistleblower
Daniel Ellsberg and famed journalist and filmmaker John Pilger. Ellsberg
worked for the Pentagon and  the RAND Corporation, and Pilger was a
correspondent for *The Daily Mirror* and a columnist at *The New Statesman*.

Having been on the inside of the Establishment, these writers, editors,
producers and board members work to provide the public with a significantly
different point of view of international and domestic U.S. affairs than the
mainstream corporate media.

CSE and Global News, with this report, are portraying critical journalism
as directed by a foreign power, as if legitimate and indigenous dissent
cannot exist on its own.

Their report takes place in the context of a broader campaign by powerful
interests to link their critics to Russia as a way of discrediting them and
protecting themselves. It is reminiscent of the Cold War campaign of Sen.
Joseph McCarthy, revived in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and
persisting, evidently, until today.

*Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former
correspondent for **T**he Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe**, **Sunday
Times **of London and numerous other newspapers. He can be reached at *
*[email protected]* <[email protected]>* and followed
on Twitter @unjoe .*

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