Media harder to identify, RCMP officer tells hearing over photojournalist's lawsuit

Media harder to identify?

Photo: The Canadian Press

Canadian Journalist and Acting Editor-in-chief/Executive director of The Narwhal, Carol Linnitt, left, and Canadian photojournalist Amber Bracken centre, arrive at the Law Courts Building in Vancouver, on Monday, January 12, 2026.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

The RCMP officer in charge of overseeing the enforcement of a court injunction in a British Columbia pipeline dispute where a photojournalist was arrested says he welcomes media coverage of such operations.

Asst. Commissioner John Brewer says he supports media "being given as much access as reasonably possible" and it's not the job of police to "arbitrate who's media and who's not," provided they're not "overtly complicit" with protesters.

But he told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing over the lawsuit filed by photojournalist Amber Bracken that inconsistency in media behaviour can lead to "misunderstandings" on both sides.

Bracken and news organization The Narwhal are seeking a declaration that her November 2021 arrest at a protest over the Coastal GasLink pipeline was unlawful.

Lawyer Sean Hern, who is representing Bracken and The Narwhal, told the court at the start of the trial that his client was carrying multiple cameras, press identification and a letter from the publication when she was arrested.

Brewer says he's "never questioned someone's media credentials," but it has become more difficult to identify media covering police operations.

"When I first started policing — I joke a bit, your honour — every media person had a fedora and a press tag sticking out of it, you knew who they were. I don't know anymore. And that leads to issues," Brewer told the hearing in Vancouver.

Bracken was held in detention for three days after her arrest and initially charged with civil contempt of court, but the case was later dropped.

The RCMP response to the lawsuit said Bracken was not exempt from complying with the injunction and claimed her actions "went beyond her role as a journalist."

Bracken, whose work has been published by news organizations including The Canadian Press, has said the case concerns the media as a whole.

The Narwhal's acting editor-in-chief, Carol Linnitt, said in a statement before the trial started in Vancouver that injunction zones like the one at the protest area allow the RCMP alone to "determine what journalism is, who performs it, where and how."