Pipeline protest created safety risks, but journalists were let in, says RCMP officer

Reporters were allowed in

Photo: The Canadian Press

Canadian Journalist and Acting Editor-in-chief/Executive director of The Narwhal, Carol Linnitt, front right, delivers a statement as Canadian photojournalist Amber Bracken listens before their trial against the RCMP in Vancouver, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. Bracken and The Narwhal news organization are suing the RCMP, seeking damages and a declaration that Bracken was wrongfully arrested in 2021 at a protest by opponents of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in B.C. We’ll be covering the start of the civil trial. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

The senior RCMP officer co-ordinating enforcement at a British Columbia pipeline protest in 2021 says journalists were permitted to go through an "access control point" set up by police, and anyone who claimed to be media was allowed in.

Asst. Commissioner John Brewer is testifying in a case brought by news organization The Narwhal and photojournalist Amber Bracken, seeking a declaration that the arrest of Bracken at the site was unlawful.

Brewer says people claiming to be journalists at the protest against the Coastal GasLink pipeline were to be allowed through by police unless their story "beggared belief."

He told the court he'd seen several examples in the past where people who claimed to be media at protests "simply walked past us, linked arms with the protesters and sat down" after being granted access by officers.

Brewer says protesters claiming to be media at the Fairy Creek logging protest on Vancouver Island, where more than 1,000 people were eventually arrested, had brought cement and other blockade materials, but police were still "chastised" for preventing them access.

He says the pipeline blockade created safety risks because there was only one way in and one way out, hundreds of workers were "trapped" by the blockade, and three days of blocked access would have created issues with food, water and sewage.

Bracken, whose work has been published by news organizations including The Canadian Press, was arrested along with protesters and held for three days.

She has said the civil lawsuit concerns the media as a whole, while The Narwhal's acting editor-in-chief, Carol Linnitt, said in a statement before the trial started 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."