‘I felt kidnapped,’ says journalist suing RCMP for alleged wrongful arrest

A photojournalist who is suing RCMP for alleged wrongful arrest and detention while she was covering a pipeline protest in northern B.C. says she felt as though she had been “kidnapped” during the incident.

Amber Bracken, who was working for the online newsmagazine The Narwhal at the time, made the comment during a news conference Monday outside the Vancouver Law Courts to announce that the lawsuit had been filed.

The Edmonton woman was taken into custody Nov. 19, 2021 while reporting from Wet’suwet’en territory on protests over the construction of a pipeline by Coastal GasLink to move natural gas from northeastern B.C. to a liquefied natural gas terminal being constructed in Kitimat.

In December 2018, the B.C. Supreme Court had issued an interim injunction to prevent people from interfering with the use of a service road to access construction sites.

However, some members of the Wet’suwet’en and their supporters did engage in protests and prevented the company from preparing for and engaging in pipeline construction activities.