No policy means they can do whatever they want … basically do whatever they can get away with.
They should probably get on that.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The RCMP says it has no clear-cut policy on how to handle journalists when Mounties are breaking up protests such as those at remote resource sites, despite court decisions guiding the need to respect the freedom of Canada’s press in these tense situations.
A freedom-of-information request filed after the November, 2021, arrest of photojournalist Amber Bracken at the Wet’suwet’en pipeline standoff in northern B.C., was recently returned by the federal police force with the acknowledgment that it did not have a protocol on this issue.
But, in the absence of a clear policy on how to handle media at protests, front-line Mounties must rely on their discretion in these situations, leading to the inconsistent treatment of journalists, said Michael Boudreau, a criminology professor at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.
division of the RCMP received some guidance on the matter at least three years ago based on a landmark 2019 Newfoundland Court of Appeal decision, which vindicated reporter Justin Brake for following protesters as they broke into a multibillion-dollar hydroelectric project in Labrador.
That ruling stated that judges should consider whether a journalist is engaged in good-faith news gathering; actively assisting, participating with or advocating for protesters; aiding or abetting them in their actions or in breaching any court orders; obstructing justice or interfering with law enforcement and whether matters being covered are in the public interest.
RCMP’s then in-house legal counsel Kyle Friesen as a Feb. 7, 2020, memo entitled “Exclusion zones: principles for public safety.” The two-page analysis reiterated the criteria from the Newfoundland judgment for Mounties to be circumspect about arresting journalists, whom have Charter rights to “attend, observe and report on events, within reasonable safety limits.”
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