Saturday, February 08, 2020

Pipeline Stasi Shamed into Changing Course. Won't Arrest Journalists for Crime of Journalism.


Apparently  RCMP sleuths have discovered there's something called the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  The pipeline Stasi are in a tactical retreat.
The RCMP is standing down on threats to arrest journalists who are reporting on a police raid in Wet’suwet’en territory in northwest B.C. that began in the early predawn hours on Thursday. The raid has continued into Friday afternoon as police advance down a forest road occupied by Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, Wet’suwet’en members and their supporters in opposition to the Coastal Gaslink pipeline.

Journalists reported being threatened for photographing police in tactical gear, and some were physically removed from the site. But on Thursday evening the RCMP wavered in the face of outrage to infringement on press freedom in an email to Ethan Cox, editor of Ricochet Media. Photojournalist Amber Bracken is also on scene for The Narwhal at Unist’ot’en camp where police are expected to make arrests late Friday or Saturday. 
Earlier that afternoon, Cox tweeted an email he received from an RCMP spokesperson that stated Ricochet journalist Jerome Turner was “subject to all the same restrictions as anyone else within the zone,” and would have to choose to leave or “be subject to arrest.” 
By Thursday evening, the same spokesperson, Chris Manseau, amended the RCMP’s position and said journalists “can rest assured that the RCMP will make every reasonable effort to allow media personnel to get as close as possible to the enforcement area, while ensuring no interference with police operations.”
Decriminalizing journalism. What a novel idea.

3 comments:

the salamander said...

.. no complaint, its actually laughable Mound, how Twitter tweets questioning the Federal Government (Trudeau) and the BC Provincial Government (Horgan) re allowing or directing RCMP's senior directives against protesters .. trigger (and I do mean trigger) Liberal partisans. Questioning the Dauphin is about on par with defending Canadian women such as Ms Wilson-Raybould and/or Dr Jane Philpott. The insults seem not be sexist per se nor are they informed or useful in any way.. Its more like partisan insult I see from Harper groupies and halfwits

Everything about Pipeline Jam Throughing seems distorted these days, going all the way back to the heyday of His Royal Harper's Majority Rule Uber Alles. Harper set the table by a fine talent for trashing Environmental legislation and an insatiable taste for Omnibus Budgets. His obvious quirk for pompous boastful self aggrandizing bill and new law titles was hilarious though damned stupid for someone believing he was the smartest guy in any room. He had trouble keepin the sneer off his face and out of his vapid and banal language

Trudeau is delighted to sit at that table that Harper set. Sunny daze indeed ! And handing the operational reins over to Mz Freeland and Stuart Butts, Telford et al so Justin can be more ceremonial, delegate and well, be sunny.. just aint cutting it, nor is the fabulously wealthy and droll Mr Morneau, he of the Chateau he forgot he owned. Methinks Canadians kind of expect certain levels of Senior Public Servant bullshitting, but letting the National Police figure shooting peaceful protesters on their own unceded lands with sniper rifles or 'any level of violence they feel neccessary' is not negotiable, comprehensible or to be considered.

Would that be akin to RCMP snipers shooting .. well, uh.. any Canadian such as parents blockading RCMP and a fracking crew with a permit (National Interest & Nation Building y'know) to put a drill pad and all related setup for 10 compressor trucks in a primary level schoolyard and daycare ? How about laying pipe right through Laureen Harper's family ranch ? OK to shoot her parents for refusal to vacate ? Well, uh, neither would ever happen right ? But those Indians y'know practice some demonic religion, right ? So they is 'fair game' to ride roughshod over via SWAT type 'special officers.. non ? Or mebbe send in the Armed Forces after telling the senior Department of Nation Defense 'to get em out, just get it done'.. kinda smacks of Kent State style.. and nobody knowing later who fired the first shot

.. 'there's a man with a gun over there' .. 'step out of line, the man come and take you away..' Now folks are blocking train tracks, protesting in the streets, and in front of civic buildings. I don't thinks this ends well, Mound. It may blow into disasterville. Forget blackface, or a Lavalin scandal. This aint scandal, its more like national shame & a stain on Canadian identity if it blows up any further. Who is going to back off ? Anybody ? I only know one party that can back off or back up.. and it aint gonna be The First Nations.. who been here approx 15,000 years. Life of a minority Government can be months only or maybe a year or two.. Riddle me that, Mound

The Disaffected Lib said...

Perhaps, Sal, the "American disease" has now spread through our Liberal ranks. A lot of them still claim (whether they believe it or not) that a $30 per tonne carbon tax will "deliver us from evil."

There's a causal element to all of this. If the Tories basically support Trudeau's energy policy and the Liberal rank-and-file are also on side, that maps out the most politically advantageous path for this government: Speak Loudly and Do As Little As Possible.

I had hoped that 2015 would mark a real tide change. Not so much. Liberal, Tory, same old story. Prophesy fulfilled.

Meanwhile, the Teck mine verdict nears. Will JT tell Jason Kenney and the Calgary Petroleum Club to go fuck themselves?

the salamander said...

.. Alberta Politics over at Progressive Bloggers has the conspiracy theories of Kenney & Moe Inc while in Washington covered this AM. They were recorded hallucinating over Stuart Butts and Barack Obama backchannel deal twould seem. Some vague wank about Keystone veto conspiracy.. astonishing deduction there Jason

CTV Question Period Expert Panel this afternoon with Even Solomon struggled re any facts per TMX, Teck, or Coastal GasLink. Pam Palmater tried to wake and shake any drops of sense into them, but their all on a distant Petro Planet. Robert Fife, Joyce Napier & a ReformoTory western MP named Barlow plus Solomon the wise, all OD'ing on their Petro Blue Pills in full cry. Palmater took their scalps with a grin. Its hard to fathom the sheer ignorance re fact or issues.. or reality

I must have somehow missed any discussion re RCMP 'Direction or Goal' re quashing Coastal GasLink protest or the drastic worldwide fall of LNG prices plus discussion re planned or possible subsidy to Teck or hitting Net Zero re GHG's by 2050 or how its dilbit output gets to that Nirvana land of Benchmark prices once in Asia or somewhere.. or the USA where 90 % ends up. Canadian LNG is somehow going to outcompete Australian LNG.. have any of them looked at a map lately ? Or gas prices ? Or heard of salt brine from fracking that's radioactive enough that disposal workers wear dosimeters ? In the US its usual that salt brine infused with secret formula fracking liquid chemicals runs approx 10-1 ratio to the energy - oil or gas produced. That is a shitload requiring disposal down a rabbit hole or spread on roads to comtrol dust or ice hear round. Radioactive y'say.. ? ! Its all stored at wellsite for brine trucks to haul away. Social cost there re radioactive infrastructure and the crews, drivers etc ?

I'm quite aware of the term in computer tech per aspects of photography, video, film, print evolution.. that term is and was and will always be 'vapourware' .. Somehow 'ethical oil', 'world class', 'proud', 'environmental standards', 'industry self-regulation' are essentially akin to vapourware.. not really there.. Wherever 'there' is, they aint there.

Trudeau needs to belly up to the bar.. and be there, grow a pair, no deals, just the 'Right Stuff' & seperate from Kenney's fabricated world of glib dogmatic horseshit salad. Wean off popularity polls, fear of Albertans. Its all boom and/or bust Klondike Daze and Partisan Rodeo goat riding.. it don't matter how, but be somewhere, somewhere defined, responsible, honest, progressive, fer Gawd's Sake be the complete opposite of Jason Kenney or Stephen Harper.. the stench is already unbearable of fake Public Servants, deep divers from the partisan political septic tanks