Hardly a day goes by without a legacy media story or a politician warning that the Alberta independence movement may be rife with foreign actors trying to interfere in the process. Despite the constant claims of fire, there hasn’t even been a sighting of smoke.

Perhaps that’s why NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi released his performative letter begging CSIS to investigate the issue, despite the RCMP already announcing they could find no evidence of foreign interference.

He desperately wants something to point toward to try and claim a grand conspiracy of international despots are behind the independence movement in Alberta. The problem is, CSIS needs some evidence to work with before beginning to investigate something. Nenshi could demand that CSIS investigates for interference from Martians, but it doesn’t compel the agency to act.

One article at a site called Betakit was provocatively headlined saying, “Meet the AI company tracking the foreign actors stoking Alberta separatism!” It then laid out how dangerous foreign interference could be in an event such as a referendum and how a company named Cipher was tracking it.

They deeply buried the lede, however, which was that the company had already released a report on the issue. The article states, “Cipher’s report was clear: disinformation did not create the separatist moment happening today.”

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It was a large number of words and a leading headline leading to the conclusion there is actually nothing to be seen here.

The Globe and Mail published a column by Canadian history professor Wesley Wark with a headline trumpeting “Alberta’s government is being obtuse about the risk of foreign interference!”

Wark goes on at length about potential risks of foreign interference but like others warning of it, he can’t cite any evidence of it happening. He condemns the Alberta government for not acting on the issue, but how are they supposed to act on something that isn’t happening?

Opponents to Alberta’s independence enjoy using the bogeyman of foreign interference as a form of low hanging fruit to spread fear with. They won’t let lack of evidence hinder them from spreading misinformation on the issue.

The CBC surely spent a small fortune when they did a deep dive into Facebook postings from foreign actors supporting Alberta independence only to conclude the biggest actor they could find was a noodle vendor from Indonesia who made $14 USD over the course of a month through postings.

Sheila Gunn Reid thoroughly debunked allegations of interference hysterically posed by former NDP MP Charlie Angus on Alberta Fact Check.

Canada itself has plenty of examples of foreign interference. Particularly in federal Liberal nomination races. CSIS has been rather clear on that problem though no visible action has been taken on the issue.

In Alberta though, there hasn’t been a significant example of foreign meddling in the upcoming referenda and it’s doubtful there ever will be.