Bartolucci Must Ban Cops Impersonating Reporters

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression have called on Rick Bartolucci, our MP in Sudbury and the cabinet minister in charge of the Ontario Provincial Police, to ban the OPP from impersonating reporters, as outline in this media release and this CBC article. SAWO has sent the following letter in support of that call.

Dear Minister Bartolucci

As your constituents, we are writing in support of the recent call by Canadian Journalists for Free Expression that you, as the Ontario Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, direct the Ontario Provincial Police to stop impersonating reporters.

We understand that an OPP officer posed as a reporter while spying on a gathering of members and supporters of the Mohawk Nation in conjunction with the Aboriginal Day of Protest in 2007.

We agree with the CJFE position that police posing as reporters serves to compromise the ability of ordinary people to use the media as one imperfect but important tool to educate ourselves about issues that are shaping our lives and our communities. We feel that it would be the politically responsible thing to ban this practice.

Moreover, we see this issue in the larger context of our grave concerns about government approaches to indigenous struggles against racism and for the land that respond with denial and police instead of with justice.

Sudbury Against War and Occupation is a group of Sudbury residents opposed to all forms and consequences of war and occupation, including the ongoing occupation of the lands of indigenous peoples on Turtle Island.

Sincerely,

Scott Neigh (Sudbury, Ontario)
for
Sudbury Against War and Occupation

cc: Northern Life, Sudbury CBC via webform, Sudbury Star via web form,
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression