Canadian mounties seize unedited TV news footage of protest

By freedomforum.org staff

06.28.01

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Canadian authorities have seized television footage of a protest demonstration at the site of a ski resort development in the western part of the country.

Todd Lamirande, British Columbia correspondent for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, was covering a protest demonstration by the Native Youth Movement on June 24, in Sun Peaks, north of Kamloops.

There was a clash between the protesters and local supporters of the resort project. Lamirande videotaped part of the confrontation, which later turned violent, according to the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression.

Afterwards, Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers asked Lamirande for his taped footage. He refused politely, according to CJFE.

As he was driving away from the site of the demonstration to file his story, the RCMP pulled his car over and told him they were seizing the vehicle and all its contents, including his television news camera, videotapes, notes and personal effects.

The police gave no reason for the seizures except, according to the APTN correspondent, "they suspect the videotapes have evidence of a crime on them."

CJFE also reported that in a telephone conversation with Rosanna Deerchild, an APTN news producer in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Sergeant Ray Tate of the RCMP in Kamloops said there was "nothing unusual" in police actions that day.

He reportedly told the producer that the police routinely asked for and received cooperation from other news media in such requests. Tate claimed the police had asked for and received raw news footage and other photographic material from several news outlets and organizations.

When the producer asked Tate to name these organizations, he refused. When she asked him to confirm if those cooperating included other broadcasters such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., CTV or Global, the sergeant said he refused to "play that kind of game."

The RCMP have since released Lamirande and handed over his vehicle and personal effects. However, they continue to hold on to the video footage.

CJFE Executive Director Sharmini Peries called the incident "an affront" to maintaining the integrity of journalists' materials, adding that it displayed a disregard for the role of the news media in society.

"Todd Lamirande, simply by doing his job — by exercising his right to free expression — is being sought for the product of his work," Peries said.

"More troubling, because his footage may be used in future criminal proceedings, both he and the network for which he works run the risk of being perceived as adjuncts of the state, which they are definitely not," Peries added.

APTN is seeking a court injunction to prevent police use of the videotape. In the meantime, because that raw footage remains in state hands, the television network is unable to report on the protest.

Barbara Cochran, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Radio-Television News directors Association, told freedomforum.org: "Journalists play a crucial role in a free society of monitoring government agencies on behalf of the public. Actions such as this one compromise the independence of journalists by treating them as an arm of law enforcement. Furthermore, to withhold the tape and prevent the news organization from reporting fully on the demonstration is the kind of censorship we associate with totalitarian regimes, not democracies."

Update

Mounties return seized videotapes after playing them in Canadian court
Correspondent had covered protest that turned violent in British Columbia.  07.11.01