US EditionMedia harder to identify, RCMP officer tells hearing over photojournalist’s lawsuit
The RCMP highlighted difficulties in distinguishing journalists amid protests, with photojournalist Amber Bracken held three days after her 2021 Coastal GasLink arrest, court hears.
- The Canadian Press reported Feb. 4, 2026 that a B.C. Supreme Court hearing considered Bracken's lawsuit seeking a declaration that her November 2021 arrest was unlawful.
- The RCMP's response states it viewed Amber Bracken, photojournalist, as not exempt from the injunction and alleged her actions exceeded a journalist's role during her November 2021 arrest at the Coastal GasLink pipeline protest site.
- RCMP Commissioner John Brewer said he has `never questioned someone's media credentials` but acknowledged it is harder now to identify journalists covering police operations.
- Bracken was detained for three days after her arrest and initially charged with civil contempt before the charge was dropped, and she says the case raises issues for the media collectively.
- The RCMP officer in charge of enforcement said the force welcomes media coverage, but Carol Linnitt, acting editor-in-chief of The Narwhal, warned injunction zones let police `determine what journalism is, who performs it, where and how`.
26 Articles
26 Articles
Media harder to identify, RCMP official tells court in press freedom lawsuit
RCMP Assistant Commissioner John Brewer said he's "never questioned someone's media credentials," but it has become more difficult to identify media covering police operations, as he testified in a press freedom trial filed by photojournalist Amber Bracken.
The Hamilton Spectator
Media harder to identify, RCMP officer tells hearing over photojournalist’s lawsuit
VANCOUVER - The RCMP officer in charge of overseeing the enforcement of a court injunction in a British Columbia pipeline dispute where a photojournalist was arrested says he welcomes media coverage of such operations.
Winnipeg Free Press
Media harder to identify, RCMP officer tells hearing over photojournalist's lawsuit
Breaking News, Sports, Manitoba, Canada
Media harder to identify, RCMP officer tells hearing over photojournalist's lawsuit – Energeticcity.ca
VANCOUVER — The RCMP officer in charge of overseeing the enforcement of a court injunction in a British Columbia pipeline dispute where a photojournalist was arrested says he welcomes media coverage of such operations. Asst. Commissioner John Brewer says he supports media “being given as much access as reasonably possible” and it’s not the job of police to “arbitrate who’s media and who’s not,” provided they’re not “overtly complicit” with prote…
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