‘Like an open-air cage’: Police restrict reporters’ access to Canadian anti-logging protests
As demonstrators in the Canadian province of British Columbia protest the logging of one of the province’s last old-growth forests, located in the Fairy Creek watershed on Pacheedaht First Nations territory on Vancouver Island, journalists have been impeded from covering the story. Since May 17, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have enforced an injunction — approved by…
Photojournalist Ian Willms detained while covering police in Toronto
Washington, D.C., June 24, 2021 — Toronto police should explain why they detained photojournalist Ian Willms and drop any charges against him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. At about 1:30 p.m. on June 22, police detained Willms, a freelance photojournalist, after he climbed into a fenced-off area while attempting to photograph officers forcing…
Canadian police bar journalists from covering anti-logging protests
Washington, D.C., May 26, 2021 — In response to reports that officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have repeatedly denied journalists access to cover protests against logging on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, the Committee to Protect Journalists today issued the following statement: “We are concerned that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police seem to…
Canadian police block reporting on Indigenous land demonstrations
On September 2, 2020, police in Ontario criminally charged Indigenous journalist Karl Dockstader in relation to his reporting on a campaign to oppose a planned housing development in the province’s Haldimand County, he told CPJ by phone. Charges against Dockstader and at least two other Indigenous people who were documenting the campaign were pending in…
Canada denies entry to Danish journalist Kristian Lindhardt covering Indigenous land rights
On August 21, 2020, Canadian immigration authorities at the Vancouver International Airport denied entry to Kristian Lindhardt, a Danish national working on an independent documentary film and freelancing for the Danish Broadcasting Corporation and other outlets, according to news reports and the journalist, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview. Lindhardt said that Canadian…
Canadian private investigative firm compiled reports on journalists
Information and Systems Networks Corporation (ISN), a Canadian private investigative firm, conducted background checks on two journalists at the behest of a law firm, according to one of the journalists, Jesse Brown, the publisher of the Canadaland news website and podcast, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview and shared one page of the…
Halifax Examiner’s Tim Bousquet on covering a mass shooting in a pandemic
When news broke that a gunman had killed at least 22 people in Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19, the Halifax Examiner, a small independent local news website, began piecing together how the deadliest mass shooting in Canada’s history had occurred.
CPJ calls on Canadian police to allow journalists to freely cover matters of public interest
CPJ writes to the commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to express concern at the treatment of journalists covering protests against the construction of a gas pipeline through Wet’suwet’en territory, and to urge that the RCMP allow them to do their job and report freely on matters of public interest.
Canadian police arrest journalist and filmmaker Melissa Cox as she reports on rail blockade
Washington, D.C., February 26, 2020 — Canadian authorities should not file charges against journalist and filmmaker Melissa Cox, and should ensure that the press can freely cover matters of public interest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
CPJ welcomes call for targeted sanctions to protect journalists
When the U.K. launched an initiative to support media freedom in the waning days of Jeremy Hunt’s tenure as foreign minister, CPJ was skeptical that this government-led effort would be more than a feel-good campaign. However, we chose to engage, given the current vacuum of leadership on press freedom globally. As the U.S. pulls back…