Toronto Star columnist Justin Ling is accusing Premier Danielle Smith of spreading “Brexit-like falsehoods” over Alberta sovereignty.

Ling compares Danielle Smith not to former British prime minister David Cameron, who called the Brexit referendum, but to Nigel Farage, one of Brexit’s most outspoken advocates. 

He argues Smith is promising Albertans unrealistic benefits from greater sovereignty or separation in the same way he claims Farage oversold Brexit to British voters. Ling writes that Brexit advocates promised voters more money, greater freedom, and economic prosperity, but says the U.K. instead experienced sluggish growth, declining investment, and higher unemployment after leaving the European Union. He argues Smith is similarly offering Albertans “magic solutions” and unrealistic expectations about what sovereignty or autonomy could achieve.

But Ling himself helped amplify one of the most explosive and ultimately false narratives of the Freedom Convoy era: the claim that convoy protesters were connected to an attempted apartment arson in downtown Ottawa.

During the 2022 convoy protests, politicians, activists, and journalists repeatedly pointed to a fire set inside an Ottawa apartment building as evidence that the convoy movement was extremist and dangerous.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson claimed the incident “clearly demonstrates the malicious intent of the protesters.” Liberal MPs later cited the alleged arson connection while defending the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergencies Act.

Ling and CTV reporter Glen McGregor both circulated commentary and reporting that strongly implied the convoy was linked to the incident.

But on March 21, 2022, Ottawa Police publicly stated there was “no information indicating” the accused arson suspect “was involved in any way with the Convoy protest.” Police charged 21-year-old Connor Russell McDonald independently of the demonstrations and continued searching for a second suspect unrelated to the protest movement.

That clarification came long after the allegation had already spread across legacy media, political talking points, and social media feeds — and after the incident had been used rhetorically to justify extraordinary emergency powers against protesters.

And that credibility problem matters now.

Ling’s latest column paints Alberta sovereigntists as grievance-driven conspiracy theorists spreading dangerous myths.

But many Albertans remember that some of the same media figures now warning about “misinformation” spent years confidently pushing narratives during COVID and the Freedom Convoy that later fell apart, softened, or required major corrections.

That collapse in institutional trust is not separate from Alberta’s sovereignty debate.