RCMP officers deny access to Ricochet journalists

An RCMP officer denied access to photojournalist Amber Bracken and threatened to arrest Ricochet journalist Brandi Morin who were covering a police raid on an anti-logging protest camp on southern Vancouver Island. 

Bracken (who is a member of the Canada Press Freedom Project’s advisory board) and Morin were reporting from the camp for Ricochet and IndigiNews when RCMP officers moved in to arrest protesters. 

A video shared by Morin shows police carrying away an arrested protester. In the video, an RCMP officer can be seen pointing at Morin and saying “Go – go back there.” 

In the video Morin shared, two officers can then be heard telling her to move back. One threatens several times to arrest her if she does not move. In response, Morin can be heard telling the officer that she has a right to document the event. 

On Twitter (currently called X), Morin said one of the officers “grabbed” her after threatening to arrest her. 

Later in the video, an officer can be heard describing the area as a “media exclusion zone,” to which Morin responds, “You guys aren’t supposed to be creating exclusion zones for the media.” 

In response, the officer can be heard saying: “I need to make sure that you are in a safe zone. This whole area is a temporary exclusion zone, if you – I’m allowing you to stay here, but really, you should be out back there.”