Morin arrested by Edmonton police while covering Indigenous encampment
Norman, Oklahoma – The Indigenous Journalists Association (IJA) supports Brandi Morin (Cree/Iroquois/French) who was arrested by the Edmonton Police Service while covering their removal of a homeless encampment for Ricochet Media on Jan. 10 in Edmonton, Canada.
Morin was covering homeless encampments in Edmonton with her camera to witness and report on police actions when she was handcuffed and arrested for being in an exclusion zone marked by police tape and after identifying herself as a journalist.
IJA echoes the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) in calling on all levels of law enforcement agencies in Canada, to swiftly implement enforceable policies to prevent journalists from being improperly arrested or detained; and attacks on press freedom must end.
Morin is a mother and an award-winning journalist, a professional member of IJA and an Indigenous Media Awards (IMA) winner. Her journalism community supports her storytelling and stands with her during this difficult time. IJA calls for the criminal obstruction charge against her to be dropped.
Indigenous journalists must be free to report on our communities and share our peoples’ voices, on our traditional territories. Storytelling is our inherent right and an integral part of our right to self-determination, which must be recognized by colonial entities.
About the Indigenous Journalists Association
The Indigenous Journalists Association’s mission is centered on the idea that accurate and contextual reporting about Indigenous people and communities is necessary to overcome biases and stereotypes portrayed in popular and mainstream media. Expanding access to accurate news and information is essential to an informed citizenry and healthy democracy, across tribal, local, state and national levels.
For more than 40 years, Indigenous journalists across the United States and Canada have worked to support and sustain IJA. Originally formed as the Native American Press Association in 1983, the organization has grown from just a handful of reporters to a membership of nearly 900, which includes Indigenous journalists, associates, educators and partners.
