The RCMP vs. the media: Bracken trial approaches its endgame
Plus, is Doug Ford planning to axe elected public school boards in Ontario?
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The RCMP vs. the media: Bracken trial approaches its endgame
By: Justin Brake
This court case could decide the future of press freedom — and police oversight — in Canada
It’s been more than four years since John Brewer, RCMP’s assistant commissioner for British Columbia, led an operation to remove land defenders from a remote area in unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in northern BC. The land defenders, led by members of the Wet’suwet’en Nation’s Gidim’ten House Clan, had reoccupied the area in an effort to enforce an eviction notice from Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders and prevent construction of the controversial Coastal GasLink pipeline.
Brewer, who tells the court he’s a member of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band, is not here because he helped force First Nations people from their land. He’s been summoned to the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver because officers under his command arrested and jailed a journalist as part of the Mounties’ November 2021 operation.
The actions of Brewer’s team that day are under scrutiny in a landmark lawsuit filed by photojournalist Amber Bracken and digital outlet The Narwhal against the RCMP — which could go all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, in the process codifying journalists’ and the public’s constitutional right to press freedom.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s episode of Ricochet’s flagship podcast In Bed with the Elephant for host Adrian Harewood’s conversation with journalist Justin Brake where they break down the ins and outs of a case that could decide the future of press freedom in Canada.
Is Doug Ford planning to axe elected public school boards in Ontario?
By: Jon Thompson
Critics warn the move would end more than two centuries of local education governance and silence parents, Indigenous communities, and advocates for students with disabilities
School trustees in northern Ontario say the provincial government intends to eliminate their elected public school board positions when the legislature returns this spring.
Lakehead District School Board trustees are rallying with local union leaders and parent advocacy organizations in Thunder Bay, claiming the majority-Progressive Conservative government will introduce an omnibus bill as early as this month that would put an end to more than 200 years of locally accountable education governance.
“Our concern is that they’ll come back and just dissolve or eliminate the trustees from all boards – it’s our biggest concern,” says Lakehead board chair Leah Vanderwey. “When you listen to Minister of Education [Paul] Calandra, he says he hasn’t heard any argument against eliminating trustees.”
In the four months since Ontario passed Bill 33, which enabled the education minister to overrule the Education Act and take direct control over local boards, allegedly due to mismanagement and fiscal unsustainability, Calandra has imposed supervisors to rule over eight of the province’s English boards.
This week on In Bed with the Elephant
Host Adrian Harewood sits down with acclaimed Canadian writer and essayist Jeet Heer to discuss Donald Trump’s impact on Canada and the rest of the world.
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