Exploring Theme: "Media Protests and the Police"

A Mountie deployed to enforce an injunction obtained by timber firm Teal-Jones at Fairy Creek in 2021. Photo: submitted/file  APTN News: The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP (CRCC) says that the RCMP was unreasonable in setting up broad exclusion zones and checkpoints while enforcing a civil injunction covering the Fairy Creek area in British...

Brandi Morin was charged while reporting at encampment authorities arrived at to dismantle and could face two years in jail NationTalk: The Guardian – A journalist in Canada who was arrested and charged while reporting on a police operation to clear an encampment for unhoused Indigenous people says she fears the charges will chill further reporting of...

Trends show a clear sign that Canada is allowing tendencies of an oppressive state where law enforcement’s action cannot be documented by independent journalists and instead they are slapped with bogus charges. The Toronto Star: The arrest, detention and bogus charges against journalist Brandi Morin launched by the Edmonton police should concern everyone. On Jan. 10, Morin...

NationTalk: PEN Canada is deeply concerned at the Edmonton Police Service’s (EPS) arrest of Cree/Iroquois/French freelance journalist Brandi Morin and calls for the immediate dismissal of all charges against her ahead of a court hearing scheduled for February 1. Ms. Morin was arrested during a police raid on an Indigenous encampment on January 10. Ms....

When journalists document the efforts of Indigenous land defenders, the RCMP obstructs and arrests them The Tyee: The Breach – When Innu, Inuit and settler Labradorians set up camp at the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in 2016 to stop the flooding of their lands, the historical record held a frightening list of potential scenarios that...

The Narwhal… Many of you may remember the moment: it was a chilly winter day in November 2021 when news broke that photojournalist Amber Bracken had been arrested by the RCMP while reporting for The Narwhal from Wet’suwet’en territory in northwestern B.C. Uproar ensued: international media attention, outrage from press freedom organizations and an all-hands-on-deck legal...

Toronto Star – Two journalists reporting from the Wet’suwet’en territory were among 15 people arrested and detained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in British Columbia Friday night. Both remain in custody. Since last year, media has covered RCMP raids in the territory, Indigenous rights and police removal of defenders of the land who are...

BC Civil Liberties Association – Legal Observers in Victoria have documented a number of RCMP practices designed to prevent the public from witnessing and documenting police actions. The organization has documented RCMP officers using tarps and other coverings to visually conceal arrests from media and legal observers. Legal Observers Victoria have also documented RCMP officers...

Toronto Star – Increasing arrests of Indigenous journalists including: Karl Dockstader at Land Back Lane Haudenosaunee occupation regarding a housing development near Caledonia Courtney Skye, Yellowhead Institute researcher and Ryerson Fellow award-winning journalist Justin Brake was arrested and charged with criminal and civil contempt and criminal mischief while covering a protest at Muskrat Falls in...