Freedom of the press is a Charter right that provides protection to the journalistic institutions that inform our democracy. It must be protected. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has violated journalists’ freedoms in recent months and must stop.
On Nov. 19, award-winning photojournalist Amber Bracken and documentary filmmaker Michael Toledano were arrested at the Gidimt’en Checkpoint on the Wet’suwet’en Nation territory despite having credentials and letters of assignments from news outlets.
These are not one-off events. At Fairy Creek in B.C., Teen Vogue reporter Ora Cogan was told by an RCMP officer to be “silent or you’re gone” while reporting from road blockades protests on old-growth logging on Aug. 24.
Canadian Press freelance photojournalist Chris Young was arrested and issued a trespass notice by Toronto Police Service while covering the clearing of homeless encampments at Alexandra Park in Toronto, Ont. on July 20.
The RCMP is fraying its relationship with journalists by continuing to act in ways that undermine press freedoms. This hurts the public’s subsequent ability to stay informed about developments in Canada.
The RCMP’s conduct is especially concerning given court decisions upholding the rights of journalists to report from within protests and injunction zones, such as the 2019 B.C. Supreme Court order prohibiting physical restriction of access to roads leading to Coastal GasLink (CGL) work area.
Although Bracken and Toledano have since been released, Bracken has been ordered to comply with the terms of the injunction.
In an open letter by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) signed by more than two dozen leading voices in Canada’s media landscape, the CAJ outlines the need for journalists to comprehensively document events without fear of police retribution.
Above anything else, the job of a journalist is to observe, document and report—to be a fly on the wall. It is time for the RCMP to allow journalists across the country to do their jobs.
Featured graphic from file.
