FILE PHOTO - A crowd of supporters gathered at the intersection of Prairie Valley Road and Highway 97 in Summerland to cheer on the Okanagan Slow Roll Convoy as it traveled south on Feb. 5.
(DAN WALTON / iNFOnews.ca)
February 19, 2022 - 6:05 PM
Journalists trying to cover “freedom” rallies across the country experienced harassment from protestors this weekend.
“Being spit on, having my physical appearance scrutinized, called a liar and 'fake news' - just a few of the interactions at the protests in Osoyoos,” Yasmin Gandham, a Global Okanagan journalist, wrote via Twitter today, Feb. 19. Protestors have been travelling from Vernon to Osoyoos weekly to rally against pandemic restrictions.
She declined to comment for this story but longtime CBC radio host Chris Walker, based out of Kelowna, said he’s been experiencing increasing levels of harassment in recent weeks, adding to the overall trend he's seen in the last two years. Kelowna CBC reporter Brady Strachan also said via Twitter he has been added to a "Canada's New Age Nazi" list.
“I get more harassment in one day now than I’ve received in the first 10 years of my career put together,” Walker said.
Last weekend, Walker said he was chased out of a crowd in Kelowna by anti-restriction protestors who were shouting at him while he interviewed people. On Friday, Feb. 18, the CBC program was interrupted by a person who was banging on the window at his office. In the last few weeks, Walker also had to use a security guard while on the job, he said.
“The fact that I need security to do my job in sleepy little Kelowna for the public broadcaster is f***ing astonishing. It’s just baffling to me,” he said.
For weeks, protests have been held across the country, demanding officials to drop pandemic-related restrictions, including large protests in Kelowna and the convoy across the Okanagan.
Elsewhere in the province, CBC Vancouver journalist Dan Burritt said via Twitter he was swarmed today while covering a protest in Surrey. Global News anchor Kamil Karamali and his cameraman had to be escorted to their vehicle by RCMP officers as a crowd gathered around them, he said in a Tweet. Surrey RCMP reported they were aware of several incidents involving a group of aggressive protesters who surrounded media personnel.
“These kinds of acts of aggression and intimidation towards media, or any member of the public, are simply unacceptable,” said Sgt. Elenore Sturko of the Surrey RCMP, in a press release.
“While it is not always safe for our officers to take immediate enforcement action at the time of the alleged offences based on the size of the crowd of protesters, these incidents will be fully investigated and could lead to subsequent arrests or charges.”
The Canadian Association of Journalists warned reporters to be careful while covering anti-restriction rallies this weekend.
“To all the journalists working this weekend—amid hostile crowds and an ever-changing situation—to keep Canadians informed, thank you. And thank you to the newsroom leaders watching out for their safety,” they said via Twitter.
Jennifer Moreau is the secretary-treasurer at Unifor Local 2000, which represents mostly print media workers and also sits on Unifor’s national media council that represents 11,000 media workers across Canada, including Global News workers.
No one is officially tracking these types of attacks but media workers are reporting their experiences of harassment or violence in the field are increasing, she said.
“Media workers are saying things like I’ve been in the media industry for 20 years and it’s never been this bad,” she said.
Globally, open hostility towards media workers has been increasing, often spurred by political actors in the U.S. like Donald Trump and in Canada with Maxime Bernier, she said.
“I think it has to do with the vulnerability of media workers because our industry is a shadow of what it once was. With the internet so widespread and available to everyone there are other sources of unverified information people choose to believe over the news,” she said, adding it’s a mix of issues with the anti-vaccine and alt-right movement with journalists bearing the brunt of it all.
“People used to think it’s part of the job just suck it up, it’s not. It’s part of a continuum of violence against journalists,” she said, adding that women and journalists of colour are particularly targeted. It’s also a freedom of the press issue.
“People leave the industry if the cases are bad enough,” she said.
In some locations, CTV and Global have chosen to remove decals from their vehicles due to safety concerns. Other employers have chosen to have security guards accompany reporters out in the field, she said.
Police often don’t take the issue seriously too as they may not have the training or resources to deal with the issue. In the U.K., if you report harassment, often they don’t record the person as a journalist so there’s no way to track the numbers, she said.
"These anti-vaxxer type protests are definitely a hazard because they are so openly hostile against media workers," Moreau said.
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