Confronting Gaslighting In Alberta

Our friends at Spiritual First Aid sent us a timely resource on the subject of  confronting gaslighting.

Are you familiar with “gaslighting?” Jocelyn and I are familiar with it in the context of abuse in relationships and specifically marriage. Some of our friends have experienced the cruelty of gaslighting first hand.

The practise is being employed before our eyes south of the border and within our Alberta borders.

It’s not likely to stop so it’s better to be informed.

Terms: Gaslighting

Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation that causes a person to doubt their perceptions, memory, or judgment. It often involves an individual or group exerting control by denying facts, minimizing experiences, or rewriting events.(Sounding familiar yet?)

Over time, gaslighting can distort a person’s sense of reality and erode their confidence, leading to dependence on the manipulator for validation and safety.

Those experiencing gaslighting frequently feel anxious and isolated, questioning if their thoughts are trustworthy.

Common gaslighting tactics include minimizing harm, shifting blame, or presenting false information as fact.

Remember the Alberta teacher’s strike? The provincial government placing the blame for classroom issues on immigrants, the federal government, and teachers?

They were steering away from the true source of this crisis and blaming others.

A teacher friend sent me some of these examples.

Classic Gaslighting

1. In the Fall of 2025, public messaging aimed at “correcting the false narrative” the Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) had created, suggested teachers were misrepresenting what was offered. This shifted blame onto teachers rather than acknowledge substantive disputes over class sizes, staffing and wages that have existed for years.

2. Government officials repeatedly highlighted a 12% wage increase over four years and a plan to hire 3,000 teachers as if these amounted to solving classroom issues. Teachers and the ATA said this ignored inflation and the fact that the hiring numbers largely reflected previously budgeted positions or weren’t truly “new” classroom staff as originally bargained.

The government committed to funding 1,000 net new certificated teaching positions in this school year and in each of the next two school years. They then declared the first 1,000 teachers were already hired in 2024-25 doing nothing to alleviate the situation.

Back To School Act

3. The Back to School Act (Bill 2) was passed the majority government using the notwithstanding clause — a rare constitutional override — to force more than 51,000 teachers back to work and impose a collective agreement that those teachers had rejected in bargaining votes. This was not a neutral solution but an assault on the rights of teachers.

4. During the strike a provincial minister reported that 2023 saw the largest population increase in Alberta’s history, adding “immense pressure on our school divisions” and calling for “more responsible immigration”. This after the Alberta government spent millions on an advertising campaign, “Alberta is Calling” inviting immigrants to Alberta with a possible $5,000 bonus for relocating.

5. Provincial government leaders framed efforts to end the teacher strike as acting “in the best interests of students” and cautioning against prolonged disruption, often suggesting teachers were responsible for harm to students’ learning. In their words they acted to “preserves the sovereignty of the legislature to act in the public interest and ensure there is full certainty that children could return to the classroom and stay in the classroom.”

While not gaslighting by definition, the full transcript of Alberta separatist lawyer Jeffrey Rath’s speech is not policy debate. It is systematic disinformation designed to manufacture fear, anger, and grievance.

America

On Saturday morning, January 24th,  I happened on a social media video of a shooting and thought it was an AI-generated, anti-ICE production. My initial reaction was, “violence by authorized agents that horrifying could never happen in America.”

I was shocked to learn it was real.

6. Federal officials said agents had acted in self-defence during a violent altercation on January 24, involving Alex Pretti. Kristi Noem said Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun,” and when officers “attempted to disarm” him he “violently resisted.” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Pretti “tried to assassinate federal law enforcement.”

View the eyewitness videos. Don’t rely on Fox news to inform you. What do your eyes tell you?

Counter Gaslighting

Why does this matter? The counter to gaslighting is grounding yourself in objective reality.

1. Keep a written record of interactions, including key details. Reviewing these notes provides evidence to support memory and reduces self-doubt.

2. I curate files and references on my computer of quotes, statements, and links about subjects in the news and from Ukraine.

3. Sharing experiences in a trusted setting can validate your perceptions and remind you that confusion and self-doubt are natural responses to manipulation, not evidence of weakness.

To our teacher friends… perhaps this resource may be of help to you.

Access the resource here.

What do you think? Have you experienced gaslighting? Post a comment and join the conversation.

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