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January 14, 2026 – Canada –
Canadian photojournalist Amber Bracken has taken the stand in a landmark press freedom case in the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver, where she and the nonprofit news outlet The Narwhal are suing the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the federal government for wrongful arrest, wrongful detention, and violations of her Charter rights.
The scheduled 5-week trial, which began on 12 January 2026, centres on Bracken’s arrest on November 19, 2021, while she was on assignment covering anti-Coastal GasLink pipeline protests on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia — protests rooted in Indigenous land rights and opposition to the pipeline’s construction.
The lawsuit contends that RCMP officers failed to accommodate her role as a journalist when enforcing an exclusion zone at the protest camp, arresting her alongside protesters, seizing her equipment, and detaining her for three days without charge.
Bracken and The Narwhal argue that independent reporting from such events is vital for the public’s right to know and that police actions had a chilling effect on journalism and transparency. Her testimony is part of a broader effort to establish legal clarity on press protections in Canada, including whether police must consider journalists’ presence and rights when managing exclusion zones or injunctions during protests.
The outcome of this case could set an important precedent for media access and law enforcement conduct in contexts where journalists document contentious public interest issues.
References –
https://www.cbc.ca/news/journalist-arrest-rcmp-pipeline-protest-9.7042771
