Former Alberta NDP MLA Shannon Phillips, who was secretly surveilled by two police officers in Lethbridge, Alta., in 2017, says the surveillance incidents involving Globe and Mail reporter Carrie Tait should be referred to the RCMP.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press

When former Alberta NDP MLA Shannon Phillips first heard that a Globe and Mail reporter was surreptitiously surveilled, photographed and eventually the focus of an online intimidation and harassment campaign, it didn’t immediately take her back in time.

Rather, her first thought was what the shocking revelation said about the province’s political culture.

“It’s a one-party state,” Ms. Phillips told me. “And folks behave with impunity as a result. Also, it’s much easier to break the rules and norms of democratic society when your target is a woman.”

She should know.

In 2017, Ms. Phillips was NDP environment minister. That year, she learned she had been secretly surveilled by two members of her Lethbridge local police force who were off-road vehicle enthusiasts and upset by a government plan to protect some park areas used for their recreational pursuits. One officer........

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