Jesse Winter, a photojournalist who has worked with Vice, The Guardian, the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, was blocked from trying to cover anti-pipeline protestors in Coquitlam, BC.
“Sgt Waters with the CN police just threatened to arrest me for attempting to cover the #wetsuweten supporters rail blockade in Port Coquitlam,” Winter tweeted.
“If you are a protestor, then you are protesting, right? But if you’re just the media, that’s different. You’re not allowed on private property,” the officer said.
In a follow-up tweet, Winter said, “Specifically Waters said multiple times that if I was a protester I could stay, but that if I was independent from them I was being asked to leave. If I did not, I would be subject to arrest because it is private property. #freepress.”
Winter stood his ground, and the officer did not forcibly remove him from the scene.
The protests and blockades across Canada are a response to the raid of an anti-pipeline camp in Northern British Columbia that was opposed to the building of a pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory.
The Wet’suwet’en Tribal Council supports the pipeline project.
