(CJFE/IFEX) – The following is a 26 June 2001 CJFE press release: Police seize television reporter’s video footage On 24 June, in Sun Peaks, north of Kamloops, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers seized video footage and other materials belonging to Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) correspondent Todd Lamirande. Lamirande was covering a story where […]
(CJFE/IFEX) – The following is a 26 June 2001 CJFE press release:
Police seize television reporter’s video footage
On 24 June, in Sun Peaks, north of Kamloops, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers seized video footage and other materials belonging to Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) correspondent Todd Lamirande.
Lamirande was covering a story where the Native Youth Movement and some local First Nations people were protesting the development of a ski resort in the British Columbia town. There was a clash between the protesters and local supporters of the project. Lamirande videotaped part of the confrontation, which later turned violent.
Afterwards, RCMP officers asked Lamirande for his taped footage. He refused politely. As he was driving away from the site of the demonstration to file his story, the RCMP pulled his car over. The police told him they were seizing the vehicle and all its contents, including his TV news camera, videotapes, notes and personal effects.
The police gave no reason to Lamirande for his detention nor for the seizure of the vehicle and its contents except, according to the APTN correspondent, “they suspect the videotapes have evidence of a crime on them.” This was the same reason written on the search warrant served later, after midnight on early Monday morning.
The RCMP have since released Lamirande and handed over his vehicle and personal effects. However, they continue to hold on to the video footage.
In a telephone conversation with an APTN news producer in Winnipeg, Rosanna Deerchild, Sergeant Ray Tate of the RCMP in Kamloops said that there was “nothing unusual” in police actions that day. He told the producer the police routinely asked for and got co-operation from other news media in such requests. That day, Sgt. Tate continued, the police had asked for and received raw news footage and other photographic material from several news outlets and organizations. When the producer asked the sergeant to name these organizations, he refused. When she asked him to confirm if it was other television stations such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), CTV or Global, the sergeant said he refused to “play that kind of game.”
The APTN is currently seeking to get a court injunction to prevent use of the videotape. In the meantime, because that raw footage remains in state hands, the television network is unable to report on the protest.
