December 6, 2021
SHARE
CANADALAND
#735 Jailed for Journalism: Amber & Michael Speak Out
Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano are freelance journalists who were arrested by RCMP officers on the morning of Nov. 19, 2021 while they were covering the demonstrations of Wet'suwet'en people and hereditary chiefs against the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. 
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
Sarah Lawrynuik
Senior Producer
Tristan Capacchione
Audio Editor & Technical Producer
Cherise Seucharan
Reporter, CANADALAND
Kieran Oudshoorn
Managing Editor, Podcasts

The standoff on unceded territory was the top news story of 2020, until the pandemic hit. But since then, coverage has waned and in-depth looks have largely been left to freelancers and smaller independent news outlets that have fewer resources to fight charges in court.

If the state police lock up members of the press for doing their jobs, can we really call Canada’s media a free press?

Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano join Jesse to dig into it.

Further reading:

RCMP arrest journalists, matriarchs and land defenders following Gidimt’en eviction of Coastal GasLink, The Narwhal

Video footage shows RCMP Wet’suwet’en raid, Michael Toledano for CBC News

RCMP tracked photojournalist Amber Bracken in active investigations database, The Narwhal

Amber Bracken honoured by Canadian Association of Journalists for Wet’suwet’en coverage, (June 2020) The Narwhal

Canada’s Supreme Court recognizes Wet’suwet’en law. So how is Coastal GasLink moving ahead?, National Observer

Sponsors: Kilne, Douglas, Freshbooks

More from this series
Support us now at canadaland.com/join
October 21, 2024
How did a garbage company become the “best” source for news in this major Canadian city?
October 21, 2024
“Artificial intelligence was considered the realm of lunatics and wackos and eccentrics. So they couldn't get hired at really elite universities in the United States. [The] University of Toronto hired them, and then it turned out they were really right and all the elite people were really wrong.” - Stephen Marche, author of “Was Linguistic A.I. Created by Accident?”
October 14, 2024
Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, sits down with Jesse for a candid and intense discussion about how Israel’s actions during the war are impacting Canadians.
October 7, 2024
It was the largest art fraud in history. The sheer volume of rip-offs numbering in the thousands. And the scheme that shocked the art world sprang from, of all places, Thunder Bay. How did the fraudsters hatch such a plan from such an unlikely place? And what part did a cold case murder play in finally exposing their cultural crime?
September 30, 2024
1030
Cue the sad trombone sounds for Rebel Media, who just lost an appeal to qualify for federal journalism tax credits. Where will they get funding from now?
September 27, 2024
1029
Canada’s former ambassador to Israel, Norman Spector, joins to unpack the narratives and larger geopolitical context of the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
September 25, 2024
1028
A small Canadian firm wants to build the largest goldmine in Brazil. But there’s no shortage of questions, allegations, investigations and legal battles swirling around the proposed project. Are local subsistence miners making false claims to drive Canadian competition off their land? Are Canadian mining executives violating human rights for an estimated $8 billion payout? Why is the UN investigating? What should the role of the Canadian government be in all this?
September 23, 2024
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND