Reporter accused of being Russian spy tells MPs they fell for disinformation

By David Baxter, The Canadian Press on November 7, 2024.

Ottawa Citizen/Sun journalist David Pugliese waits to appear as witness before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU) investigating Russian Interference and Disinformation Campaigns in Canada in Ottawa, on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

OTTAWA – A veteran Ottawa Citizen journalist who was accused of being a Russian asset by a former cabinet minister says it is the “height of irony” that a committee studying disinformation has fallen for it.

David Pugliese told the House of Commons security committee today he found it astonishing that none of the MPs on the committee challenged the allegations when they were made last month.

Chris Alexander, a former Conservative cabinet minister and ambassador to Afghanistan, made the allegations at an Oct. 24 meeting.

Alexander presented the committee with what he said were KGB documents dated 1984 through 1990, which apparently say the Soviet spy agency saw Pugliese as a potential asset.

MPs from all parties say they were caught off guard by the accusations, saying they did not have proper time to review the documents.

Pugliese told the committee he’s now appearing as a witness to correct the record and defend himself from a “character assassination” carried out under parliamentary privilege.

The translated versions of the documents, which Alexander tabled with the committee, name Pugliese and refer to him by the code name “Stuart,” and state that an agent known as “Ivan” was tasked with building a relationship with him.

Pugliese says he did not live in Ottawa in 1984 and did not work for the Ottawa Citizen in the 1980s, contrary to what was stated in the documents.

In a previous interview with The Canadian Press, Pugliese said the documents given to the committee are the same ones involved in an ongoing civil lawsuit over reporting he did about allegedly faulty equipment sent to Ukraine.

Since the Oct. 24 meeting, the journalist says he has received death threats and his family has been told they should be deported.

Alexander told the committee these documents are evidence of “a serious effort to undermine Canada’s national security and collective self-defence.”

The former MP told The Canadian Press last month he stands by what he said to the committee.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

– With files from Rosa Saba