Journalist Ramona Murphy arrested while reporting on CANSEC protest; Ottawa Police Service refuse to comment on exclusion zone
Photo: Handcuffed journalist Ramona Murphy being put into Ottawa Police Service van outside the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa. Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.
The North Star, an independent, bilingual media outlet, has condemned the arbitrary arrest of its journalist Ramona Murphy.
The North Star notes: “Murphy was covering the demonstration as a volunteer journalist. She was filming police actions when she [was arrested]. …Eyewitness accounts and live footage confirm her role as an observer. …Arresting a journalist, whether a volunteer or not, is a frontal attack on press freedom.”
The Ottawa Citizen reports: “The North Star said police threatened Murphy with mischief and resisting arrest charges.”
She was released eight hours later without charge.
Photo: Ottawa Police arrest Murphy. Photo by Andy Tran.
82 journalists killed in Gaza in 2024
Approximately 300 people were protesting the CANSEC weapons show at the EY Centre in Ottawa on the morning of May 28. A significant number of those present were members of the Palestinian community protesting the presence of weapons companies that are profiting from the genocide of their people.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) provides this list of companies arming the genocide, many of which were at CANSEC that day.
The Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ) has documented: “More journalists were killed in 2024 than in any other year since the CPJ began collecting data more than three decades ago. At least 124 journalists and media workers were killed last year, nearly two-thirds of them Palestinians killed by Israel.”
CADSI has denied media access
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), the Ottawa-based lobby group for weapons companies that organizes the annual CANSEC arms show, has also previously denied access to media.
On May 31, 2023, The Breach reported: “A CADSI representative told The Breach that the media outlet had its accreditation request refused because it might provide ‘negative coverage.’ ‘We have the right to deny media access, and we looked at your coverage and you do aggressively critical anti-war journalism,’ the representative said on a phone call.”
That article by The Breach adds: “When questioned about whether this would be an infringement on press freedoms, the representative offered access that was conditional on The Breach providing positive coverage. After finally agreeing to allow a Breach journalist into the conference, the CADSI representative called back five minutes later to inform The Breach that her executive team had reconsidered the decision and was again denying access. ‘They weren’t willing to take a risk,’ she said.”
Journalists arrested at protests on Indigenous lands in Canada
There is a growing list of journalists, photo-journalists and filmmakers who have been arrested by police in protest situations. This includes Justin Brake, Brandi Morin, Jerome Turner, Michael Toledano and Amber Bracken.
Toledano and Bracken were arrested while covering Indigenous land defenders resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline on Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia.
In February 2023, The Narwhal and Bracken filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court of British Columbia against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCMP) for wrongful arrest, wrongful detention and violation of Charter rights.
Video still (at 12:12): Photojournalist Amber Bracken was arrested by the RCMP on November 19, 2021, as she covered the Wet’suwet’en resistance to the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline being built on their territory without consent.
Ottawa Police refuse to comment on media exclusion zone
The Ottawa Citizen article further notes: “The Ottawa Police Service could not confirm whether or not there was an exclusion zone set up for media during the protests against CANSEC. An exclusion zone is a practice by police to place journalists in a specific area and away from a police operation.”
In a formal complaint to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) in response to an exclusion zone on Wet’suwet’en territory in 2020, the Vancouver-based British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) commented: “The RCMP implementation and enforcement of the exclusion zone criminalizes and impedes the movement of … media… RCMP interference with individual liberty is significant, arbitrary, and disproportionate to achieving the stated goal of public safety.”
The BCCLA complaint to the CRCC also highlighted: “We emphasise that even in areas where injunctions are being enforced, the courts have upheld the constitutionally-protected freedom of the press. In 2019, the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal vacated an injunction and contempt court appearance it found improperly applied to a journalist charged with contempt while covering an Indigenous-led movement at the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project site in Labrador in October 2016.”
Video still: Justin Brake talks about covering the protests at Muskrat Falls | APTN News.
Citizen journalists
Bruno Le Héritte, a spokesperson for The North Star, tells the Ottawa Citizen that citizen journalists are recognized “as important as any other journalist.” In this respect the Ottawa Citizen references Darnella Frazier.
The Minnesota Star Tribune recently reported: “Frazier was a 17-year-old heading to a corner market on May 25, 2020, when she came upon the scene of [George] Floyd dying under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. She recorded the killing on her cellphone and shared it with the world, an act that was key in four officers being convicted and imprisoned.”
Video still of Darnella Frazier who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for this citizen journalism.
In December 2020, Frazier was awarded the Benenson Courage Award from PEN America that “honors exceptional acts of courage in the exercise of freedom of expression” and the following year a Pulitzer Prize “for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice.”
We continue to follow this.
Further reading: General Dynamics displays artillery shell implicated in controversial deal, Ottawa Police arrest 13 at protest against CANSEC arms show (May 29, 2025).
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