RCMP caused 'serious interference' with press freedom in 2020 Wet'suwet'en raid, review body finds

The RCMP seriously interfered with press freedoms, unreasonably blocked media access and arbitrarily detained a reporter during a 2020 raid on Wet'suwet'en-led blockades in northern British Columbia, the force's review body says.

Five years after that operation, the Mounties formally apologized to complainant Ethan Cox, senior editor at independent news outlet Ricochet Media, and Gitxsan reporter Jerome Turner, for breaching Turner's Charter rights.

"I welcome this apology. I think it's tremendous," said Cox, who praised the review's findings as precedent-setting.

"I think it's a step in the right direction, but it has to be followed with action, and that action has to trickle down to the officers on the front lines."

Signed by Staff Sgt. Maj. Kent MacNeill, the force's Feb. 19 letter of regret was a welcome surprise for Turner, who accepts the apology — on one condition.

"I accept it, with the caveat that they don't do this to journalists ever again," he said.

The rebuke from the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission adds to a list of racist or unconstitutional conduct by the RCMP's Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).

Last week, a B.C. judge found C-IRG violated Charter rights by making "grossly offensive, racist and dehumanizing" remarks about First Nations women during another raid on Wet'suwet'en-led blockades against Coastal GasLink pipeline construction in 2021.

Last fall, the review body lambasted C-IRG for its wrongful arrest of hiker Brian Smallshaw, criticizing the unit for its "disproportionately intrusive methods," at the Fairy Creek anti-logging blockades in 2021.

Meanwhile, the complaints commission is already conducting a systemic investigation into the unit, which was renamed the Critical Response Unit, or CRU-BC, amid the federal probe last year.

While it's taken years, Cox suggests chickens are coming home to roost for a unit that documents show was created to defend pipelines from Indigenous activists and environmentalists.

"The systemic review that comes out later this year is going to be perhaps even more scathing, and I hope that that leads the RCMP to get rid of the C-IRG," said Cox.

"I don't think the C-IRG is defensible. I don't think it's redeemable. It is a really bald faced exercise in policing at the service of industry."

Turner was assigned to cover Wet'suwet'en resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in 2020. That February, RCMP swept in to enforce an injunction against blockades interfering with pipeline construction.