canadaLANDBACK is a co-production of Canada’s National Observer and Canadaland.

Since 2019 five journalists have been arrested at land defenses, several others have been detained or threatened with arrest - why?

Host Karyn Pugliese believes the answer is to be found in two land defenses that unfolded in the 1990s. 

Kanesatake

Gustafsen Lake

Of all the things journalists have to cover in Indigenous communities, land actions are the most complicated, involving a tangle of history and relationships journalists trip into unprepared. 

Landback movements question Canada’s legitimacy as a nation, and its character as a champion of human rights. 

How the media understood and told these stories mattered.  

State violence as a response to a human rights issue is indefensible, but it is a justified response to a criminal matter.

So what are land defenses? 

Is the state enforcing the rule of law against armed terrorists?

Or is Canada using violence to crush human rights defenders? 

This episode is not about the land defenses themselves - but about the emergence of a public relations war to control the story the media tells.

Host/Producer: Karyn Pugliese, editor-in-chief, Canada’s National Observer

Producer: Kim Wheeler

Additional research and support for this episode Beverly Andrews and Cara McKenna. 

See the RCMP's full statement here.

For information on sources and sounds used in this episode, visit the CANADALAND website

Sponsors: Athletic Greens, Freshbooks

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