Canada: CFWIJ Condemns The Verbal Harassment Of Lauren Boothby
Location: Canada, Edmonton
Date: March 15, 2021
Reporter Lauren Boothby was harassed by a group of miscreants while on duty. The situation would have become dangerous since one of the men among the group has already been charged with engaging in hate crimes. According to Laura, the police was not on the scene at the time of the incident.
On March 14, Lauren Boothby, reporter for the Edmonton Journal was verbally harassed by a group of men outside the GraceLife church while working on a story. Lauren took to Twitter to talk about the incident. She clarified that the group was not associated with the state, and approached them after the police vehicles left the location. According to Lauren, once the group began to harass her, she asked them to back off and communicated to them that she was only there to do her job, however, that did not deter them.
One of the men among the group, Kevin J. Johnston was already reportedly charged with engaging in hate crime, in a 2.5 million dollar lawsuit against him. According to Lauren's tweets, the group first targeted a colleague of hers, who is a photographer, and accused him of pedophilia. They charged towards her when she began to record their behaviour as a safety measure for said colleague. The group accused her of taking down license plates, while livestreaming the whole incident on their facebook pages.
The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns the actions of the group in the strongest terms. We are extremely distressed to hear about the incident and the many dangerous ways it could have gone had Lauren not kept her cool during the whole exchange. We urge the Canadian authorities to ensure safety for journalists, specially women reporters who are particularly vulnerable to trouble makers like these.
The CFWIJ strongly condemns the police brutality against journalists. We demand the immediate return of the press cards seized from the security forces. Policies to intimidate journalists should be abandoned, and journalism should be practiced under the criteria of freedom of the press.
If you have been harassed or abused in any way, and please report the incident by using the following form.