This lawsuit alleges that the RCMP unlawfully arrested and detained Ms. Bracken – an award-winning photojournalist – while she was covering protests of and Indigenous resistance to the Coastal GasLink Pipeline in 2021. The plaintiffs allege that their freedom of expression rights were violated, both in that Ms. Bracken was prevented from fully documenting these events, and that the Narwhal was delayed in being able to report on them. The plaintiffs also allege that Ms. Bracken’s rights under ss. 7 and 9 of the Charter were violated because she was arrested and detained unlawfully. 

The Coastal GasLink Pipeline project was approved in 2014 despite long-time opposition from the majority of the Wetʼsuwetʼen hereditary chiefs through who’s traditional and unceded territory the pipeline would pass. In peaceful expression of Indigenous self-determination, the hereditary chiefs and other land defenders have set up numerous blockades to prevent access to the pipeline construction sites. Since 2018, a number of court injunctions have been ordered to allow construction to proceed. These injunctions have been enforced by an RCMP unit called the Critical Response Unit (CRU-BC) – formerly known as the Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG). This group has been repeatedly accused of serious misconduct in its enforcement of this and similar injunctions.  

The BCCLA has intervened in this case to argue that freedom of the press must receive special consideration when these types of injunctions are being granted and enforced. It is critical that police actions in remote locations and against marginalized groups are documented and shown to the public. The role of the media is indispensable in this regard. We are also arguing that limits must be put on the use of detention for those arrested for breaching injunction orders. In this case, Ms. Bracken was held in custody for four days before getting a bail hearing, something that would never be allowed in the criminal context.