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
Are dentists defrauding the Canadian government?
December 2, 2024
The Millenium Bug was supposed to bring the world to a halt, but governments claimed they squashed the problem. Was it all a panic over nothing?
November 28, 2024
“My job is to smuggle black market babies out of Canada and into the US. I’ve been at it off and on for the past 5 years. Maybe there’s an easier way to make a bankroll, but I don’t know it.” - Eugene Moyneur (ex-wrestler, ex-bodybuilder, baby-smuggler)
November 25, 2024
“Elon flipped out. He saw Substack as sort of like the number one competitor to X at the time. He banned discussion of the word Substack. And to this day, there's a lot of people who when they want to talk about Substack on Twitter, they write like, S star star B, like, like we're Voldemort or something.” - Chris Best, Substack co-founder and CEO
November 18, 2024
Is he a terrorist? Or a scapegoat?
November 11, 2024
Documents reveal how Canada’s airline watchdog was pressured to bend the rules and leave Canadians holding the bag.
November 4, 2024
“In an effort to put everything into question, we run the danger of losing any kind of firm footing on which to build a more just and equitable society. So the logical end game of a certain project of questioning is total bafflement or the destruction of everything.” - Professor Mark Kingwell
October 28, 2024
Support us now at canadaland.com/join
October 21, 2024
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND