Tuesday, November 23, 2021

 Nfld. & Labrador

'1 in 100-year storm' could drop 350 mm of rain on southwestern Newfoundland

Some areas could see 15 to 20 mm of rain per hour, says

 meteorologist Ashley Brauweiler

Alex Kennedy · CBC News · 
Parts of southwestern Newfoundland could see between 200 and 350 mm of rain beginning Tuesday and into Wednesday. (Ashley Brauweiler/CBC)

The southwestern edge of Newfoundland could see between 200 and 350 millimetres of rain over the next 36 hours in a weather event meteorologists say will likely land in the record books.

According to Justin Boudreau of the Environment Canada weather office in Gander, heavy rain will begin Tuesday morning and continue into Wednesday as a tropical trough parks over the Port aux Basques and Wreckhouse area of the island.

The system will bring 24 to 36 hours of steady rain, along with sustained winds of over 100 km/h that could gust to 150 km/h.

"200 [mm] is a good low-end at this point. On average, we're seeing about 200 to maybe as high as 350, maybe even higher than that," Boudreau told CBC News Monday. The storm could set the record for the largest rain event recorded in the province, which was 268 mm in Burgeo in 2016.

"From what I've been looking at, it's more than a one in 100-year storm type of thing."

Boudreau said the system will be almost entirely confined to the southwestern tip of Newfoundland, something he called "remarkable."

"When I look at 48-hour rainfall totals, there's a huge number down between Port aux Basques and Burgeo and Gander and the northeast has 0.5 mm. It's something else," he said.

The system brings a high potential for washouts and flooding, according to CBC meteorologist Ashley Brauweiler.

The system is driven by an atmospheric river, according to Brauweiler, very similar to what brought intense rain and flooding to British Columbia earlier this month.

"The rain dramatically drops off for the west coast, less than 30 millimetres, except in the higher terrain where 30 to 50-plus millimetres is possible. There is a potential for some significant rainfall Tuesday night through Wednesday along the strait in southern Labrador as well, with 50-plus millimetres," she said.

 Brauweiler added rain will be intense, with as much as 15 to 20 mm falling per hour.

'It's pretty scary stuff'

The upcoming storm has already cancelled Marine Atlantic crossings for Monday and Tuesday, with communications head Darrell Mercer saying service could be affected until Thursday if the weather lands to its full extent.

"[Captains] want to see some future forecasts before they make a decision," Mercer said.

Travellers planning to ride the crossing are asked to contact Marine Atlantic's reservation line if they'd like to make alternate arrangements.

Marine Atlantic crossings for Monday night and Tuesday morning have already been cancelled. (Marine Atlantic)

The weather also has residents in the Port aux Basques area bracing for impact. Crews in the town of Channel-Port aux Basques have been out throughout Monday checking storm drains and making sure residents are prepared, according to Mayor Brian Button.

"We have to prepare for the worst. If anything, we may get a best-case scenario maybe that we only might get 100 mm of rain," Button said. "But the forecast and the eye of all this, it's looking like it's got the potential to be something that we haven't seen in perhaps 100 years or more. It's pretty scary stuff."

Button is encouraging residents to make sure drains are cleared around private property, be prepared with enough food and water and to contact the town in case of an emergency

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FLATTEN THE HEIRARCHY
Canadian Forces top-heavy with generals as rank and file shrinks

Other forces have a much leaner structure. The U.S. Marine Corps has 180,000 active personnel commanded by a maximum of 62 generals.

Author of the article: David Pugliese • Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Nov 22, 2021 •
Acting Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre. 
PHOTO BY ADRIAN WYLD/THE CANADIAN PRESS/FILE

Canada’s military has become increasingly top-heavy in recent decades, with the number of rank-and-file soldiers significantly shrinking and the number of generals remaining about the same, new documents reveal.

As of March 31 this year, the regular force had dropped to 65,644 and was commanded by 129 generals and admirals, according to Canadian Forces figures released under the Access to Information law. That is in contrast to statistics from 1991, when the Canadian military’s regular force was 85,977 personnel commanded by 137 general officers.

The documents show that the significant drop in personnel was absorbed by the rank and file.

The number of privates and their naval equivalents in 1991 was 16,677. In 2021, that was 9,263. Corporals and master corporals and their naval equivalents numbered 32,265 in 1991. By 2021 that number dropped to 26,009. The number of sergeants and naval equivalents dropped from 10,211 to 6,804. In 1991, there were 8,625 warrant officers, master warrant officers and chief warrant officers and their naval equivalents. By 2021, that figure dropped to 6,376.


The numbers of captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels and their naval equivalents stayed relatively stable over the same period.

Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel and Ottawa lawyer, says the growth in numbers of general and flag officers is out of control. “This is ridiculous,” said Drapeau, who obtained the documents. “We are starting to look like Brazil or Argentina.”

Drapeau noted that each general required additional personnel and staff officers to support their needs, taking away individuals from front-line jobs.

A brigadier general and their naval equivalent earn a maximum of around $182,000 a year, a major general earns $227,000, and a lieutenant general is paid $269,000.

Other forces have a much leaner structure. Drapeau noted that the U.S. Marine Corps has 180,000 active personnel commanded by a maximum of 62 generals.

A second set of records obtained through the access law by this newspaper showed the military’s public affairs branch was concerned earlier this year there might be increased scrutiny about the number of generals, in particular, because of the Canadian Forces’ plan in the spring to create six new positions.

In response, public affairs officers developed messages highlighting the leadership abilities of Canadian generals. If a journalist asked about the high number of generals, the military response was to be: “General Officers and Flag Officers lead the CAF in defending our country’s values and interests, here at home and abroad, and they are considered institutional leaders.”

Another of the public affairs messages to be issued to journalists noted that, “General Officers and Flag Officers are instrumental to meet the increased coordination and leadership requirements associated with Canada’s complex operational commitments.”

The Canadian Forces issued a statement Friday that “the current approved permanent establishment for General and Flag Officers accounts for 120 positions.” The figure included 110 regular force positions and 10 reserve force positions, according to the military. The statement, however, did not provide details on the number of officers who have been temporarily promoted to the position of general. Those individuals receive the same pay and benefits associated with the rank of general.

Last month, Acting Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre raised concerns during a conference in Kingston about the decline in both regular and reserve forces.

Eyre said he was particularly alarmed at the number of experienced leaders, both officers and noncommissioned officers, who were leaving the military, CBC reported. During the Oct. 25 conference, Eyre blamed the military’s sexual misconduct crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic for the exodus.

“We need our mid-level leaders to dig deep and do this for the institution, to put service before self, not to retreat into retirement, but to advance forward and face the challenges head-on,” Eyre stated.

Response in online forums among military personnel to Eyre’s claims was mostly negative. Military personnel commented that Eyre was either tone-deaf or out of touch and that the exodus of personnel had started well before the pandemic or the sexual misconduct crisis. Poor leadership and concerns about quality of life were among the issues cited by those who had left the military.

A 2011 report by Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie warned about the significant growth in headquarters jobs. As a result, the Liberal election platform in 2015 promised to reduce the size of administration within the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had said his government would ensure the military would have “more teeth and less tail.”
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Protesters at Parliament Hill push for a stop to the purchase of 88 fighter jets

“Canada should not be spending tens of billions of dollars on climate destroying fighter jets."

Author of the article: Staff Reporter
Publishing date: Nov 22, 2021 •
The protest Monday in front of Parliament Hill to call on the federal government to cancel its purchase of 88 fighter jets.
 PHOTO BY JEAN LEVAC /Postmedia

A protest in front of Parliament Hill on Monday was one of many being held across Canada this week to call on the federal government to cancel its purchase of 88 fighter jets at a cost of $19 billion.

“Canada should not be spending tens of billions of dollars on climate destroying fighter jets designed to fight in NATO wars,” Bianca Mugyenyi, director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, said in a news release. “The extreme weather in British Columbia demonstrates these resources should be put towards mitigating the climate crisis.”

The three aerospace firms bidding on the fighter jet program were told in writing by the federal government that a decision would be made this month on a “down select” of companies that would be allowed to advance to the final stage of the competition.

The winning bid for the projectis expected to be announced in March or April of 2022.

However, Public Services and Procurement Canada has gone silent on whether that timetable will be met. In a response to this newspaper earlier this month, the department would only say that, “Canada continues to work towards a contract award in 2022.”

The protest Monday in front of Parliament Hill to call on the federal government to cancel its purchase of 88 fighter jets. PHOTO BY JEAN LEVAC /Postmedia

The new fighter jets, which are to replace the existing CF-18 aircraft operated by the Royal Canadian Air Force, would have an estimated life-cycle cost of $77 billion.

“We want the federal government to invest in health care, affordable housing, green jobs and a just recovery,” Tamara Lorincz, a member of the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, said in a news release on the rallies. “Fighter jets are for violence, we need global cooperation to deal with the pandemic and climate emergency.”

The “week of action” was organized by the No Fighter Jets Coalition. Rallies were to be held in Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Kingston, Nanaimo, B.C., Hamilton, Regina, Halifax, Edmundston, N.B., Collingwood, Edmonton, Montréal and Ottawa.

— With files from David Pugliese
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OTTAWA
Police board budget vote paused after lengthy meeting; protesters block highway entrance

Author of the article:Matthew Lapierre
Publishing date:Nov 22, 2021 •
Community organizations, residents blockade highway in opposition to proposed increase to the Ottawa police budget. 
PHOTO BY TONY CALDWELL /Postmedia

More than 50 people spoke out against raising the Ottawa police budget at a meeting of the Ottawa Police Service Board on Monday while a group of protesters took to the streets, blocking an entrance onto a highway

The outpouring of opposition came as the board was set to decide whether to earmark an increase to the Ottawa Police Service’s budget.

The board has the power to modify the budget before approving it, but after more than 50 people spoke at the meeting for nearly five hours, the board decided to reconvene on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

The delegates who spoke at the meeting included researchers, people with experience working in the community health networks, economists and a city councillor.

Though some of them expressed differing degrees of how much police involvement they wanted in public safety, the crux of the delegates’ message was the same: approving the budget increase for the OPS would be a step in the wrong direction.

That money, they argued, could be better invested into other areas to better improve outcomes and reduce crime.

“An increase in police funding, resources and presence on the streets of Ottawa does not correspond with higher levels of community safety,” said delegate Nora Ottenhof. “Police respond to crime, they do not prevent it. The only way to truly prevent crime is to address the social determinants of crime; namely, poverty and social exclusion.”

The Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition (OBDC), the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP) and their allies blockaded the 118 Exit to highway 417 in opposition to the proposed increase to the police budget during the Ottawa Police Services Board meeting. PHOTO BY TONY CALDWELL /Postmedia

During the meeting, around 5 p.m., a small group of about a dozen protesters asking for a police budget freeze blocked the entrance to the Highway 417 at Metcalfe Street, creating lengthy traffic delays and clashing with frustrated drivers.

The protesters carried megaphones and used a rental van and a truck to stop cars from getting through.

“We are currently taking this intersection ahead of the police budget vote that is happening tonight, the meeting that is happening right now,” a protester at the corner said on an Instagram livestream of the event. “We are here as long as it takes for our message to be heard.”

The protesters called police officers who came to the scene “pigs” and used expletives against them.

Some frustrated drivers stuck behind the roadblock took to arguing with the protesters.

“At the end of the day, we don’t care,” a protester told a frustrated motorist during the Instagram livestream. “This is about pissing people off, because at the end of the day, change has never been made for us unless we’ve pissed people off.”

“I’m getting pissed off,” the driver replied. “So, what I’m thinking is we need more police so this (roadblock) doesn’t happen.”

Before the OPSB meeting, the Ottawa Police Association, the union that represents most OPS officers, released a 14-page submission to the board, arguing the police service’s draft budget was already trimmed and could not sustain further cuts.

Ottawa’s police service, the OPA document said, has fewer officers per 100,000 residents than any other major police force in Canada.

“Defunding or diverting police budgets is a political response to assuage a small number of activists who seek change that the (board) knows is not supported by the broader public,” the association wrote.

The OPA document also lends support to further investments in mental health initiatives, but suggested that police should continue to be the ones to respond to these calls.

“Police have training in resolving these issues and are quite exceptional in their performance around de-escalation,” the OPA wrote. “As professionals, our members are always receptive to more training.”

The OPSB has committed to making an effort to reduce or freeze the OPS budget at 2021 levels in 2022. The service’s proposed budget included a net operating budget of $346.5 million, an increase of nearly three per cent over its 2021 budget, which was equivalent to an approximate $19 increase on the tax bill for an average household.

Vanessa Dorimain, co-chair of the Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition, said her group and other supporters would continue to stage protests if the OPS budget is increased.

“Police don’t need to have an increased budget. They don’t serve and protect communities, especially BIPOC communities.”

The blockade was meant to put pressure on the board, Dorimain said.

“We want them to understand that we are very serious. … We also want them to be aware that, should they decide that they want to support having a police budget increase, these actions will continue to take place across the city for as long as we see fit.”

The protest is also a way to bring awareness to the Ottawa community, she said.

Community organizations, residents blockade the highway in opposition to a proposed increase to the Ottawa police budget. 
PHOTO BY TONY CALDWELL /Postmedia

The issue of police violence spurred huge protests in the United States, she said, but “we want them to be aware that these kinds of things happen here in Ottawa, the violence toward people who live right here amongst us in our own communities. There are people here in Ottawa locally and across the country that are victims of police brutality and violence.”

Dorimain said they felt they had little option.

“We’re not doing this to get attention, we’re not doing this for publicity. We’re doing it because it’s really impacted our communities to the point where we have no choice but to do stuff like this.

“If people feel inconvenienced for a little amount of time, that is incomparable to the realities we face on a day-to-day basis with police who have operated in our community.”

— With files from Jacquie Miller



Ottawa community group protests proposed police budget increase on Highway 417 exit

Vote on Ottawa Police Service budget delayed until Tuesday

CBC News · 
The Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition and the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project set up a blockade at the Highway 417 Metcalfe exit. (Jillian Renouf/CBC)

Protesters are blocking an exit to Highway 417 to push for the Ottawa Police Service Board to consider a budget freeze for the police force. 

They want the budget frozen at 2021 levels and money directed instead towards community supports for Black and Indigenous people. 

The board was expected to vote on the Ottawa Police Service budget Monday, but after hearing from numerous delegations in a five-hour meeting — many of them opposed to the budget increase proposed by the force — it decided around 9 p.m. to adjourn until 3 p.m. Tuesday. 

About an hour after the board began its review, protesters set up a blockade at the Metcalfe exit off Highway 417 onto Isabella Street. 

Vanessa Dorimain is a co-chair with the Ottawa Black Diaspora Coalition, one of two groups that has set up the blockade. The other group is the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project. The volunteer-run coalition organizes against systemic anti-Black racism. 

Dorimain says the protest is also a show of solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en in northern B.C. Last week, police arrested several people who are demonstrating against the Coastal GasLink project there.

"We knew there would be people who wouldn't be happy, but we wanted to be in a place where we can't be ignored," Dorimain said. 

With the delay in the vote, Dorimain says she knows the group of about 25 people will continue to press the importance of a budget freeze, but she's not sure if they'll continue blocking the road. 

One member of Dorimain's group was arrested, but was released within 30 minutes, she said, adding the group has received verbal abuse from irate drivers.

Ottawa police were on site managing traffic flow, with help from the Ontario Provincial Police. 

The Ottawa police tabled its draft budget for 2022 earlier this month. The draft asks for a 2.86 per cent tax increase. This is about $14 million in new money for a total operating budget of $346.5 million.

A press release from the coalition also includes a list of priorities for the Black and Indigenous communities in the city, including increased resources for BIPOC students in schools, affordable housing and an end to police involvement in mental health checks. 

Dorimain says the coalition sent the list to city councillors and this protest is the beginning of "putting the city on notice" in advance of the municipal election slated for next year, about the work that needs to be done to support the city's residents. 

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Lethbridge police commission nixes call for inquiry into alleged threats against MLA and CBC reporter

Members surveilled NDP MLA Shannon Phillips without authorization


Janet French · CBC News · 
Lethbridge-West MLA Shannon Phillips at Lethbridge Police Service. She has been in a cycle of complaints and investigations since discovering police had photographed her and later searched personal files on their database (Dave Rae/CBC)

Lethbridge's police commission has rejected a call for a public inquiry into allegations that members of the Lethbridge Police Service threatened retaliation against NDP MLA Shannon Phillips and CBC journalist Meghan Grant for exposing misconduct within the force.

Rob vanSpronsen, the chair of the commission, said in a statement the circumstances around the request were "problematic."

"Not only do the anonymous communications lack specific information that definitively confirms they originate from LPS [Lethbridge Police Service] employees, the allegations contained in them lack any substantive supporting details," vanSpronsen wrote.

Michael Bates, a Calgary defence lawyer, called for the public inquiry in September. He represents Phillips and a woman who accused a retired LPS inspector of sexual assault, both of whom received anonymous whistleblower letters in June.

The alleged threats follow Phillips' revelations earlier this year that police monitored her while she was the NDP's environment minister.

Members of the service took secret photos of her meeting with constituents at a diner in 2017. A subsequent freedom of information request revealed that people who work for the service searched a police database eight times for her name, with no investigative purpose.

Phillips is also pushing for harsher consequences for the members who followed her without authorization.

In Lethbridge on Monday, Phillips said the serious nature of the retaliation threats against her merited an inquiry under the Police Act.

"While I am not surprised at the breathtaking incompetence of the Lethbridge Police Commission, I have learned to live with this sense of fundamental insecurity in my own home and my own community, and I will be reviewing my options accordingly," she said at an unrelated media event.

She said if police morale is so low that whistleblowers are leaking information to her, the police chief and commission also have a problem.

A host of internal problems

The commission's statement said its members considered the nature of the allegations, the anonymity, suggestions of an unsafe work environment and the potential cost and benefit of holding an inquiry.

The commission asked police Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh to ensure all employees are aware of whistleblower protections and respectful workplace policies already in place.

The force has had other controversies. Three officers pleaded guilty to misconduct and two more plan to retire for their roles in circulating inappropriate memes of police leaders.

Another woman also pushed for an inquiry says a retired inspector sexually assaulted her while he was still on the job.

Earlier this year, Justice Minister Kaycee Madu threatened to disband the force unless they could submit a plan for substantial improvement.

Madu did not take reporters' questions at the legislature on Monday. His office has not yet replied to written questions.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley says Phillips will likely explore all official avenues of appeal. If those are exhausted, Notley may call on the minister to intervene.

"The idea of there being the kind of politically driven activity in relation to an elected official is deeply troubling and we know that it needs to be resolved," she said. "It cannot be allowed to stand."

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Photojournalist released with conditions after arrest at pipeline dispute in B.C.

PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — A photojournalist was released by a B.C. Supreme Court judge on Monday, three days after she was arrested while covering the RCMP's enforcement of an injunction against pipeline protesters in northern British Columbia.

Amber Bracken was released on the condition that she appear in court in February and that she comply with the terms of the injunction order first granted to Coastal GasLink by the same judge in December 2019.

An RCMP statement issued Friday said two people who "later identified themselves as independent journalists" were arrested after refusing to leave "building-like structures" near a drilling site for the natural gas pipeline, which is under construction.

The arrests came after members of the Gidimt'en clan, one of five in the Wet'suwet'en Nation, set up blockades along the forest service road on Nov. 14.

The road was cleared on Thursday, the RCMP said.

Opposition among Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs to the 670-kilometre pipeline route sparked rallies and rail blockades across Canada early last year, while the elected council of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation and others in the area have agreed to the project.

A memorandum of understanding had been signed between the hereditary chiefs and the federal and provincial governments, easing tensions up until now.

The pipeline would transport natural gas from Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. to Kitimat. It is more than halfway finished with almost all of the route cleared and 200 kilometres of pipeline installed, Coastal GasLink has said.

The Canadian Association of Journalists issued statements over the weekend condemning the arrests of Bracken and documentary filmmaker Michael Toledano, who was expected to appear in court later on Monday.

In an open letter to Canada's public safety minister posted Monday and signed by several dozen news outlets and press freedom organizations, the association called for a "swift resolution respecting journalists' fundamental rights."

On Sunday, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said on Twitter that journalists play a role that is fundamental for democracy and they "must be able to work free from threats, intimidation or arbitrary state action."

"As the courts have held, it would be wrong for any journalist to be arrested and detained simply for doing their vital work on our behalf," he wrote.

B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said Monday that a free press is critical to democracy and it was his hope that the situation would not escalate.

The province has been doing "a significant amount of work over the last number of months to try and de-escalate tensions in the area," he told a news conference.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2021.

The Canadian Press


Outrage after two journalists detained at Indigenous protest in Canada

Press organizations condemn arrest of Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano at pipeline protest in British Columbia

Supporters of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation hereditary chiefs block railway tracks in Toronto on Sunday. Photograph: Chris Helgren/Reuters

Leyland Ceccoin Ottawa
Mon 22 Nov 2021 

Press organizations in Canada have condemned the arrest of two journalists who were detained while covering Indigenous-led resistance to a controversial pipeline project and remain in custody.

Amber Bracken, an award-winning photojournalist who has previously worked with the Guardian, and Michael Toledano, a documentary film-maker, were arrested on Friday by Royal Canadian Mounted police officers who were enforcing a court-ordered injunction in British Columbia. More than a dozen protesters were also arrested.

The activists sabotaging railways in solidarity with Indigenous people

Bracken was on assignment for the environmental outlet the Narwhal, which had previously notified police that Bracken was reporting in the area.

“The Narwhal is extremely disturbed that photojournalist Amber Bracken was arrested for doing her job while reporting on the events unfolding in Wet’suwet’en territory on Friday,” said the editor-in-chief, Emma Gilchrist, in a statement. “Bracken has been held in jail for three nights, in violation of her charter rights. We strongly condemn the RCMP for this behaviour and all violations of press freedoms in this country.”

Gilchrist told the Guardian the publication had not been able to access Bracken’s photos from the day she was arrested.

The Canadian Association of Journalists has condemned the arrests and called for the immediate release of the two journalists.

Bracken and Toledano have each spent months documenting tensions over the 670km Coastal GasLink pipeline that would transport natural gas from the north-eastern part of the province to a facility in Kitimat. While a number of communities have approved the project along the pipeline’s proposed route, hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en peoples have refused to give consent for the project, which passes through their traditional territory. The Wet’suwet’en has never signed a formal treaty with the provincial government, and have not relinquished their land.

Police conduct against Indigenous-led blockages has drawn criticism in the past, and in 2019 the Guardian revealed that the RCMP was prepared to shoot activists.

In recent months, during a separate blockade against old-growth forest logging, police responded by ripping off protesters’ masks to pepper-spray them and dragging them by their hair.

Last month, a British Columbia supreme court judge ruled that the police force’s expulsion zones – set up to prevent media from entering certain areas of the injunction area – were unlawful.

The RCMP said in a statement over the weekend that its officers were enforcing a provincial court injunction granted to Coastal GasLink which bars protesters from blocking a forest road used by construction crews.

The statement says police found a structure built on the service road and ordered people to leave after reading out the injection. Police then broke down the doors of the structure and arrested 11 people, including Bracken and Toledano, who the police said identified themselves as “independent journalists”.

The two are due to appear before Prince George court on Monday.


Photojournalist and filmmaker released after RCMP arrests in Wet’suwet’en territory spark outrage


By Omar MoslehEdmonton Bureau
Jeremy NuttallVancouver Bureau
Mon., Nov. 22, 2021timer4 min. read

A photojournalist arrested by RCMP as she covered protests by members of the Wet’suwet’en Nation against a pipeline project in their territory was released Monday after being held in custody for three days, in a case that has alarmed advocates for freedom of the press in this country.

Amber Bracken, who had been working for the Narwhal news outlet at the time of her arrest, was released after agreeing to appear again in court on Feb. 14 and to comply with the terms of a 2019 injunction that stops opponents from impeding work on the pipeline.

Meanwhile, the story at the centre of the events, the Wet’suwet’en opposition to the pipeline project, rages on.

Bracken and documentary filmmaker Michael Toledano had been among more than a dozen people, including Indigenous land defenders and elders, arrested by the RCMP as they enforced the injunction granted to Coastal GasLink, which is building the natural gas pipeline in northwest British Columbia.



The arrests came after members of the Gidimt’en clan, one of five in the Wet’suwet’en Nation, set up blockades along the forest service road earlier this month.

Opposition among Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs to the 670-kilometre pipeline route sparked rallies and rail blockades across Canada early last year, while the elected council of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation have agreed to the project.

In an interview with the Star on Monday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller stopped short of directly criticizing the RCMP’s decision to enforce a court injunction against a blockade last week. But he noted that he and his counterpart in the B.C. government, Murray Rankin, were pushing for a last-minute meeting with Wet’suwet’en chiefs and “what everyone has witnessed over the last four days was sadly the result of that.”

The arrests of Bracken and Toledano — both of whom were released Monday — had enraged media advocates.

“I believe that, under the charter and as journalists, we have a right to be in those spaces and documenting them,” said Carol Linnitt, executive editor of the Narwhal, following Bracken’s release.

“The RCMP has been able to undermine that right with total impunity in this case.”

RCMP had said they arrived at the two-kilometre mark of the Marten Forest Service Road to find obstructions, blockades, “two building-like structures” and a wood pile that was on fire near a drilling site. They said they encouraged people within the buildings to leave or face arrest, before breaking through the doors and arresting those who did not comply.

Cody Merriman, a Haida land defender who was also arrested, was also released Monday upon agreeing to court conditions to not enter the exclusion zone.

The court’s order Monday specifies those arrested cannot obstruct or impede work on the pipeline, and lays out a 10-metre buffer zone they must not breach between them and the company’s work and personnel.

The RCMP issued a release Monday saying Bracken and Toledano did not identify themselves as journalists during a 60-minute dialogue between police and protesters inside “barricaded structures.”

The statement said all inside were given the chance to leave and the two “later” identified themselves as journalists when police forced open the door.

The RCMP also said it understands the “constitutional role the media play in Canada” and has a relationship based on respect and professionalism.



Lawyers for Coastal GasLink had also argued that Bracken had not clearly identified herself as a journalist at the time of her arrest, while her lawyer, David Sutherland, said she had identification that clearly labelled her as a member of the press.

He added she was not a protester, was not obstructing police and was doing her job when she was arrested.

Linnitt said she doesn’t buy the RCMP’s version of events.

She said the Narwhal had notified the RCMP in advance of the arrests to tell them Bracken was on scene on behalf of the outlet.

“It was no secret that Amber was up there as a journalist,” she said. “She was actively reporting.”

Linnitt said she worries a new precedent has been set by the arrests, calling them a concerning set of circumstances for press freedom in Canada. Reporters have a right to be in areas where police are arresting people or enforcing the law, she said.

Now, along with arguing for the RCMP to drop the charges, she said the Narwhal is exploring the possibility of further legal action.

Linnitt said it still isn’t clear how the conditions of Bracken’s release could affect her coverage of the protests.

“Our position is she, as a journalist, is not bound by the terms of the injunction, which has nothing to do with journalists,” Linnitt said.

The Canadian Association of Journalists said Friday the courts have previously affirmed the right of journalists to report in court injunction areas, pointing to a 2019 decision made by Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Derek Green to dismiss civil charges related to coverage of the Muskrat Falls site protest, which had shut down work at a dam in 2016.

In July, the CAJ along with other media organizations won a court challenge at the Supreme Court in B.C. on press freedom in the Fairy Creek area. The judge’s final decision agreed with the media groups, indicating the RCMP cannot interfere with coverage without providing an operational reason to do so.

The Star worked with other news outlets to support Bracken and Toledano, and Torstar was one of more than 40 news outlets that called for Canada’s public safety minister to take immediate steps to review the RCMP’s actions and to ensure journalists’ rights to report were protected.

Longtime press freedom advocate Sean Holman, a professor of environmental and climate journalism at the University of Victoria, said given the outcry from the public and press he didn’t think Bracken would actually face trial.

“A free press and the work that journalists do are essential for democracy,” he said.

With files from Olivia Bowden and Alex Ballingall

Omar Mosleh is an Edmonton-based reporter for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @OmarMosleh


RCMP operation puts end to Wet’suwet’en blockade, latest tumultuous chapter in northern B.C. pipeline saga


 British Columbia

Judge releases journalists arrested by RCMP during enforcement of pipeline injunction

Amber Bracken's lawyer told judge photojournalist was well

 known to both Coastal GasLink and RCMP

CBC News · 
Filmmaker Michael Toledano emerges from B.C. Supreme Court in Prince George on Monday after his release from custody. Toledano was arrested for civil contempt as RCMP sought to enforce the terms of an injunction for the Coastal GasLink pipeline. (Andrew Kurjata/CBC)

A B.C. judge has released two journalists arrested by RCMP at a pipeline protest camp last week as police sought to enforce an injunction.

Justice Marguerite Church of the Supreme Court of B.C., in Prince George, said she would release Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano from custody after they agreed to comply with the terms of an injunction intended to keep protesters away from the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Both journalists were detained by RCMP last Friday — arrests that sparked an angry response from advocates of press freedom across North America.

Both are required to return to court Feb. 14, 2022 for a hearing related to allegations of civil contempt of court.

A lawyer for Coastal GasLink said that unlike the other 27 people who were arrested at the resistance camp, Bracken and Toledano would be allowed to return to the "exclusion zone" covered by the terms of the injunction because they have a "justified reason to go back."

'Labelled as press'

Bracken is an Alberta-based photojournalist who has won awards for her work covering the Wet'suwet'en conflict; Toledano is an independent filmmaker who has been working on a documentary on the conflict and resistance to Coastal GasLink since 2019.

"This was a punitive arrest. A punitive incarceration. I was put in a holding cell for four days for filming Indigenous people being removed from their land at gunpoint," Toledano said in brief comments to CBC News upon his release. 

"Canadians should know that journalists in this country can be arrested and incarcerated if they're telling a story the RCMP don't like."

Demonstrators gather outside the courthouse where a judge on Monday released Toledano and photojournalist Amber Bracken, whose arrests drew criticism from advocates of press freedom. (Andrew Kurjata/CBC)

Bracken's lawyer, David Sutherland, took issue with the company lawyer's contention that neither of the journalists had identified themselves as media immediately and were "crossing the line between being media and being protesters."

Sutherland said Bracken was well-known as a member of the media to both Coastal GasLink and the police.

"She was labelled on her body as press," said Sutherland, who said Bracken had pinned to her body a copy of an assignment letter from The Narwhal, the publication that hired her to cover the situation.

"Amber Bracken told me she was labelled as press and identified herself as press ... so there's no breach of the injunction at all."

Long-standing protest

The Coastal GasLink pipeline, if completed, will span 670 kilometres across northern B.C., transporting natural gas from near Dawson Creek in the east to Kitimat on the Pacific Ocean.

The company has signed benefit agreements with 20 band councils along the route of the project. But Wet'suwet'en hereditary leadership says band councils do not have authority over land beyond reserve boundaries. The hereditary chiefs oppose the construction of the pipeline, saying the company does not have consent to cross Wet'suwet'en territory.

RCMP have previously taken action against protesters in this area in 2019 and 2020. 

According to Church, the latest flashpoint in the conflict occurred at a blockade erected "in the name of the Gidimt'en band of the Wet'suwet'en people," that had halted Coastal GasLink's plans to drill a tunnel under the Wedzin Kwa river.

The blockades stranded about 500 Coastal GasLink employees, causing water rations and fears over food shortages, after the company declined to comply with an eviction notice issued by the Gidimt'en Checkpoint, which controls access to part of the Wet'suwet'en territory. 

Last week, police dismantled blockades along the Morice River Forest Service Road that lead to two work camps by enforcing the terms of an injunction Church issued in December 2019.

Some protesters released with conditions

In a statement, B.C. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Eric Stubbs claimed Bracken and Toledano were inside barricaded structures that were the subject of police enforcement efforts when they were arrested.

"They were also among those to whom the injunction was read and they were afforded the opportunity to leave the structures," Stubbs wrote.

"They did not identify themselves at any point during this dialogue with police, which lasted over 60 minutes."

Stubbs claimed Bracken and Toledano only identified themselves as journalists once police forced open the doors of the barricaded structures.

Toledano gave a different account. 

"I would argue that I had no opportunity to leave the scene," he said. "I was surrounded by men who had guns pointed at the house and so if I had opened the door, I would have endangered everyone else."

Toledano is hugged upon emerging from court. (Andrew Kurjata/CBC)

At the end of Monday's court proceedings, Church released five protesters who said they would be willing to sign a document promising to comply with the terms of the injunction, but felt they should be able to return to the injunction's exclusion zone.

Church disagreed, ordering them released on the condition that they promise to stay out of the proscribed area.

Beyond the courtroom itself, reporters and members of the public listened to the hearing through a teleconference line that was beset with technical difficulties and people who failed to mute their microphones, drawing the ire of other participants.

A number of other protesters remained behind bars Monday night, with a hearing on their applications for release set for Tuesday morning.

With files from Andrew Kurjata


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David Suzuki Warns That 'Pipelines Will Be Blown Up' If Nothing Changes After The BC Floods

Amid the B.C. flooding and the devastation that has followed it, a march against climate change was held and David Suzuki had something to say.

© Provided by Narcity

Morgan Leet 


A group called Extinction Rebellion organized the protest, which they called a "Funeral for the Future," on social media. The funeral was for the extinction of humans, which they expect to come from the ongoing impacts of climate change if no changes are made.

Canadian environmental activist and academic, David Suzuki, gave a passionate speech at the event.

"That's why I joined Extinction Rebellion, to rebel against the extinction path we are on," he said in the speech.

"We think dinosaurs were losers because they suddenly disappeared, but they ruled the planet for 190 million years. We've been here, as I say, for 200 thousand."

After the speech, which called for action from the government on climate change, he spoke to CHEK News, and said: "There are going to be pipelines blown up if our leaders don't pay attention to what's going on."

"We're in deep deep doo-doo," he also said.

Climate change has been top of mind for many living in B.C., which is in a state of emergency due to the historic weather and tragic events that have followed.

Multiple lives have been lost in the mudslides caused by flooding, including the parents of a 2-year-old girl.

While still being in the midst of dealing with last week's weather, B.C. is expected to get hit with yet another atmospheric river and high winds.
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