Rama First Nation police officer investigated over alleged threat to APTN journalist

The Rama First Nation police service is investigating an officer for her emails to an APTN journalist who had covered her partner’s alleged assault of a person in custody. 

On July 5, 2023, APTN investigative journalist Kenneth Jackson reported on 2022 surveillance camera footage showing Ontario Provincial Police officer Scott Anthony restraining and repeatedly punching a Métis man with intellectual disabilities in a jail cell, who later collapsed and appeared to have a seizure. 

On July 6, the day after the article was published, Rama pPolice officer Dana Boldt emailed Jackson. “I would love to send you into a cellblock and have someone punch you in the throat and the mouth, and see how you handle it,” wrote Boldt in the email, which was reported by APTN on July 7. 

Boldt, who said she took issue with identifying the victim as Métis in the story’s headline, also accused Jackson of “painting police as villains and causing more distrust between Indigenous people and the police.” 

Boldt is in a romantic relationship with Anthony, the OPP officer shown in the video, APTN reported.

Jackson filed a complaint with the Rama Police Service, which told APTN that they are investigating. 

Boldt also contacted APTN’s programming department to complain about the story, APTN reported. “It’s unfortunate that the ‘rogue’ police officer angle is the story that sells and not the story of the law breaking criminal who resists arrest,” Boldt wrote in an email to APTN. “I’m disappointed the APTN is even taking this on.”

When asked by APTN for comment about her email to Jackson, Boldt said that it “was not written from the position of me being an officer … it was a personal opinion.”

She said that her email “was not a threat; it was a ‘put yourself in the officer’s shoes’ comment. If APTN misconstrues that comment as a threat, it will only reinforce my opinion that reporters twist facts to sell a story and vilify police officers.”