CBC reporters' coverage of the Freedom Convoy put “significant pressure” on them, according to corporate records..Censored board minutes describe a meeting of CBC directors February 24, one day after cabinet lifted Emergencies Act orders against protesters. A secretary attributed remarks to Catherine Tait, CEO of the network..“Mrs. Tait informed the board that recent events had put significant pressure on the corporation’s staff, notably the COVID-19 pandemic and Omicron variant, the truckers’ convoy in Ottawa and the Beijing Olympic Games,” said the minutes..“Directors inquired, among others, about the effects of online harassment of journalists,” said the minutes. Several portions of the document were redacted. The minutes did not elaborate..One CBC-TV reporter earlier told a journalism seminar that management was so worried by the Freedom Convoy it assigned a security guard to accompany every employee at the scene. “You needed one to one security guards,” reporter Judy Trinh told a March 8 seminar at Carleton University in Ottawa..“Your camera would have a security guard and the reporter would have a security guard and there weren’t enough,” said Trinh. Reporters were told they could not leave the newsroom one block from the Parliament Hill blockade if “we don’t have security to go out with you,” she added..“This was a real threat,” said Trinh. “It wasn’t just people protesting peacefully for or against vaccine mandates or mask mandates. It was individuals who held extremist views, and also had military training, which made them even more dangerous.”.No protestors were criminally charged for interfering with the media..Attorney General David Lametti in April 26 testimony at parliamentary committee hearings said the Liberal government relied on CBC News for justification in invoking the Emergencies Act. “There were reports,” said Lametti. “CBC reported, I believe on the 14th of February or the 13th of February, that there was foreign funding through a variety of different sites.”.“The various pieces of information that we had explained the various measures that we took,” said Lametti. He did not elaborate..Lametti’s deputy François Daigle testified June 8 he relied on TV news coverage in recommending emergency powers against protesters. “What I saw by watching TV is that police in Ottawa, for example, because I live in that area and I followed that closely, they had trouble enforcing even municipal bylaws or provincial laws,” said Daigle..“You know that because you saw it on TV?” asked Senator Claude Carignan (Que.). “We received information every day from colleagues, from the RCMP Commissioner and others,” replied Daigle..Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino in February 25 testimony at the Commons public safety committee said he personally contacted reporters covering the Freedom Convoy, but he did not name them..“For journalists, trust me, I reached out to some of them and urged them to be very careful but they probably wouldn’t have listened to me anyways because they were concerned about reporting the facts,” said Mendicino.
