Help Brandi fight criminal charges for journalism

Tl;dr One of Canada’s most prominent Indigenous journalists was arrested for reporting on police actions, and is charged with a criminal offense with a maximum sentence of two years in prison. We need your help to defend her, and the principles of press freedom, and ensure she can focus on this case without worrying how she’ll pay her bills.

On January 10, Edmonton Police arrested award-winning Indigenous journalist Brandi Morin as she was reporting on a police raid on an Indigenous unhoused encampment. She identified herself as a journalist, and tried to explain that she could not comply with an order to leave the area as she was reporting on the situation. She was then manhandled, arrested and cuffed, held for five hours and charged with obstruction.

She never obstructed any police officer, and was simply filming from around 10 feet away as an arrest took place. But Sergeant Amber Maze, a police officer who has previously run for provincial office with one of Alberta’s most conservative parties, targeted her, singled her out and stopped her from filming, without interfering with others who were filming in the same area.

We don’t know if Brandi was profiled as a prominent journalist, and Maze wanted to shut down her reporting, or if she was profiled as an Indigenous woman, and Maze assumed she must be a camp participant because she looked Indigenous. But we do know that Maze targeted her.

“It’s an abuse of power, absolutely,” Brandi, a freelance journalist who has worked for outlets including the Guardian, the BBC and the New York Times told the Globe and Mail this week. “It’s them wanting to send a clear message to impede press freedom in this country.”

Earlier this week, eight of the largest national and international media and press freedom organizations, including the Canadian Association of Journalists, Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters without Borders, Indigenous Journalists Association, Coalition for Women in Journalism, Journalists for Human Rights, Amnesty International and PEN Canada, united at a press conference to demand that the charge be dropped.

“The brazen actions of the Edmonton Police Service are the latest example of a self-imposed ‘black eye’ in an ever-growing number of examples where law enforcement agencies in Canada have ignored, whether through ignorance or indifference, the invaluable role journalists play in a free and democratic society,” Canadian Association of Journalists president Brent Jolly said at a press conference. “This pattern of behaviour must be stopped in its tracks.”

The latest update is that after delaying for weeks, the Edmonton Police finally provided their file of evidence to the crown prosecutor yesterday. It is over 60 pages long, and although Brandi’s lawyers won’t receive a copy until next week, the length is indicative of the fact Edmonton Police are doubling down on their false arrest and malicious prosecution of a journalist for doing her job.

Chief Dale McFee, and the Edmonton Police, want to send Brandi to jail for two years. One of Canada’s most acclaimed journalists, Brandi’s recent awards include an Edward R. Murrow award for investigative journalism about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, the Ken Filkow Prize from PEN Canada for advancing freedom of expression in Canada through her reporting, an Amnesty international award for Human Rights reporting and a top long feature award at last year’s Digital Publishing Awards.

“I always knew that there was risk of arrest because of the type of stories that I cover, but until it happens to you, you don’t understand the emotional and psychological impact that it has,” Brandi said after being fingerprinted, while speaking to a group of journalists outside Edmonton Police Headquarters. “And I think that it is a tactic that they use to send that message. To impede, to insult, discredit and to intimidate the media.”

We feel confident in Brandi’s ability to beat this charge in court, and before then crown prosecutors may well drop the case. After all, Brandi did not commit the crime of obstruction, so proving she did will be hard for the police.

But the human cost of this ongoing saga is very real. For the last several weeks Brandi has been unable to work, between the demands of fighting this charge and the stress and sleepless nights. And as a freelancer, working in an industry as poorly paid as journalism, she can’t afford even a short interruption and still pay her bills and provide for her family.

At the same time, she has been subjected to a torrent of racist abuse on social media, to the point where her kids have seen these hateful statements. This should not be the price of reporting accurately and fairly in this country, and seeking to hold authorities like the police accountable for their actions.

Today is Brandi’s first appearance, and her lawyer will represent her in court as a trial date is set. We had hoped these absurd charges would be dropped by now, but the police’s delay in providing their accusations means crown prosecutors won’t have had time to review the case.

So this circus will continue, at least into next week, as the Edmonton Police do everything in their power to punish Brandi. Not for obstruction, but for her real crime: filming and reporting on violent police arrests of unhoused Indigenous people. Arrests the Edmonton Police would prefer you not see.

Now, we’ve reached a point where we need your help. Brandi needs the space to process what is happening to her and prepare her defence. She needs to know that she will still be able to pay the bills while this case proceeds.

Most of all, we need to show Brandi that her community, her readers, value her work, and stand with her in the face of this attempt to criminalize the practice of journalism.

So we’re asking for your help. Over the years, we have often appealed to the public to help fund Brandi’s journalism, and each time you have responded overwhelmingly and immediately.

Today, we need your help to do something even more important: Protect Brandi’s ability to continue doing journalism at all.

She has spoken openly about how this experience has caused her to question her future in journalism, and whether the heavy cost of doing this job is worth it.

But this country needs Brandi. She has so often been a singular voice telling the stories of Indigenous Peoples and their struggles that go beyond the surface.

“I had family members call me to tell me they saw me being arrested on TV like a criminal,” she told the Edmonton Journal, adding the experience sparked “fear and humiliation about the personal and professional consequences of being convicted of a criminal offense.”

“It’s a deliberate attempt to diminish, belittle and intimidate us, aiming to instill fear, silence our voices and undermine our professional credibility, and the public should be gravely concerned that the criminalizing of journalists is the new status quo in Canada.”

Her arrest and charge is sadly, not an isolated incident. The Coalition for Women in Journalism’s Press Freedom project has tracked 17 cases in which police in Canada intimidated or harassed women journalists for doing their jobs since 2019.

The courts have ruled, in decisions at high courts in B.C. and Newfoundland and Labrador, that it is unlawful for police to use exclusion zones or otherwise interfere with the ability of journalists to cover arrests. Even the RCMP’s own oversight body has found that these tactics are unlawful.

But they keep happening. World Press Photo of the Year winning-photojournalist Amber Bracken was arrested and held in jail for four days in 2021 while reporting on Wet’suwet’en opposition to the CGL pipeline. Charges against her were dropped, and she is now suing the police force in a groundbreaking case that may cost Canadian taxpayers a lot of money.

This week, in defending their arrest of Brandi, Edmonton Police used a line we’ve often heard, claiming that their attempts to prevent journalists from reporting on their actions were motivated by a concern for the “safety” of the journalists.

Not only is that a cruel joke, considering the impact of this arrest and charge on Brandi, it is an argument that was dismissed by B.C. Supreme Court justice Douglas Thompson in a 2021 case. He noted that journalists routinely report from warzones, and are more than capable of assessing their own security needs.

This arrest, and this charge, are about three things: preventing Brandi from reporting on police actions in the moment, punishing her for asserting her rights and sending a message to other journalists.

Do what we say, even if our orders are unlawful, or we’ll do this to you.

If they are allowed to get away with it, this will be a crippling blow to press freedom in Canada. This is a five-alarm fire in Canadian journalism, and we need your help to fight back.

Funds raised here will be used to support Brandi’s living expenses until this case is resolved, as well as any court or legal fees, and associated costs. Any funds raised but not spent to support Brandi will be used to fund future journalism.

Brandi’s case has been covered by dozens of outlets. Below are two articles that will provide more background.

Globe and Mail, Jan. 30: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-indigenous-journalist-facing-charges-after-arrest-covering-story/

Edmonton Journal, Jan. 29: https://edmontonjournal.com/news/politics/indigenous-reporters-charge-must-be-dropped-amnesty-international-press-freedom-organizations

Press release from the Canadian Association of Journalists with quotes from representatives of eight of the largest media and press freedom groups, Jan. 29: https://caj.ca/a-blunt-form-of-censorship-press-groups-condemn-arrest-of-journalist-brandi-morin/

Toronto Star, Feb. 1: https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/what-charges-against-journalist-brandi-morin-mean-for-canadian-democracy/article_47f055c4-c057-11ee-a5a9-53bb89e2aaed.html