Canada - RSF concerned to learn of yet another journalist under police surveillance

Nicolas Saillant, a reporter for Le Journal de Québec, learned Monday that he had been under Quebec provincial police surveillance in 2012. The revelation came during testimony from the Quebec police chief at a commission tasked with looking into police surveillance of journalists, led by Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Jacques Chamberland. RSF, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) have requested to intervene due to the serious press freedom concerns raised by these incidents.

"If indeed this practice of surveilling journalists is as widespread as it appears to be, it is indicative of a serious failure to respect press freedom and the independence of journalists in Canada, one of the world’s most prominent democracies, ” says Delphine Halgand, RSF's North America Director.

RSF strongly condemned the surveillance of 6 other journalists in 2013 by Quebec provincial police, as well as the surveillance of La Presse's Patrick Lagacé in 2016 by Montreal police.

Canada is ranked 18th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index, after falling 10 places in 2015.