The news editor of Edmonton's Vue Weekly is among seven Canadian journalists barred from covering the G-8 Summit, apparently because the RCMP says they are security risks.
Dan Rubinstein, who applied for accreditation to the G-8 meeting just days before the June 1 deadline, is mystified and finds the development troubling.
The 28-year-old said Thursday he's never attended a protest, except as a journalist, and although acquaintances have protested G-8 events he has no connection to the violent anarchist black bloc.
Rubinstein told The Journal he doesn't wave banners or shout slogans and can't think of anything in his life to cause concern. "I think I am pretty innocuous. As a journalist, I don't like to be the subject of a story."
But he's speaking out now because if government authorities can choose which journalists cover major events, without an explanation to the public, then government critics can be excluded and the public will not realize journalistic balance has been lost, Rubinstein said.
Rubinstein is married to Journal reporter Lisa Gregoire, who is accredited to cover the G-8 meeting.
He said two other Vue staffers applied for accreditation to give them access to information releases and the G-8 media centre, but were denied because the paper is too small and there wasn't room for all applicants.
"My application, however, was rejected by the RCMP," Rubinstein said. Finding out why, through an access-to-information request, will take 30 days so there's no hope of overturning the decision in time for next week's summit in Kananaskis.
RCMP Sgt. Wayne Noonan said Canada's privacy protection stops him from answering questions about the security status of Rubinstein and other journalists.
The accreditation review involved multiple organizations, Noonan said, but he cannot reveal what the review looks at.
Rubinstein took a degree in American studies at the University of Toronto, followed by a journalism degree at King's College in Halifax. He was a reporter for several New Brunswick newspapers before moving to Edmonton in 1998. He became Vue editor in 1999.
Vancouver photographer Elaine Briere is covering the conference for the Canadian Labour Conference CLC but got a call from the RCMP Saturday saying she will not be accredited.
The caller would not give a reason, but gave Briere a list of possible reasons: mental instability, conviction of a serious crime within 10 years or an extensive criminal record, a pattern of behaviour suggesting a person is anti-social, or political ties with groups of a subversive, extremist or of a violent nature.
"I was surprised because I had been accredited to photograph summits in Seattle and Quebec," she said in a phone interview, denying any of the RCMP criteria apply to her.
CLC president Ken Georgetti sent a letter to Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay on Thursday, expressing total disbelief that an award-winning photographer, such as Briere, could be refused accreditation without explanation. Georgetti said her work has been exhibited internationally, has been published in the Vancouver Sun, the Globe and Mail, the CLC magazine and numerous other publications.
Her film documentary, Bitter Paradise: the Sell-Out of East Timor, won Best Political Documentary at the HOT DOCS! Festival in Toronto in 1997, the labour leader said.
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