Brenna Owen

Reporter Vancouver

About Brenna Owen

Brenna Owen is a community-driven multimedia journalist and a guest on Coast Salish territory, where she’s completing a Master of Journalism at UBC. She’s also a member of the National Student Investigative Reporting Network. Brenna has travelled to three United Nations climate conferences as a civil society delegate and got her start in journalism at CFRC, the community radio station in Kingston, Ontario.

100 Articles

A set of steps is all that remains of a house in Slave Lake, Alta., on Monday, May 16, 2011. File photo by The Canadian Press/Ian Jackson

Risk and "crushing consequences" as wildfires crash into communities

The fire department in Slave Lake, Alta., had a long-standing plan for tackling wildfire encroaching on the community, but in May 2011, flames from a nearby forest blew over suppression efforts and destroyed several hundred homes and other buildings.

News | May 30th 2023

Protesters hold banners with a photograph of Myles Gray, who died following a confrontation with several police officers in 2015, before the start of a coroner's inquest into his death, in Burnaby, B.C., on April 17, 2023. File photo by The Canadian Press

B.C. coroner's jury rules death a homicide, urges Vancouver police to expedite use of body cameras

The jury in the British Columbia coroner's inquest into the death of Myles Gray after a beating by Vancouver police nearly eight years ago is recommending the department expedite its use of body-worn cameras for all patrol officers.

News, Politics | May 2nd 2023

An end slide area sign just before the Cottonwood River on Highway 97 South is shown just outside of Quesnel, B.C., on Thursday, March 9, 2023. File photo by The Canadian Press/James Doyle

Logging and forest loss may have awakened ancient B.C. landslides

A series of ancient landslides have been "reawakened" in British Columbia's Cariboo region, costing hundreds of millions in federal disaster assistance funds and prompting warnings thatlogging is connected to the problem.

News | March 23rd 2023

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond listens during a news conference after releasing a joint report with the B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner about cyberbullying, in Vancouver, B.C., on Nov. 13, 2015. File photo by The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond responds after another award revoked over heritage claims

Former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says she's satisfied in her "past work, identity and self-worth," after the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association revoked an award because its board members believed she falsified her claims of Indigenous identity.

News | March 10th 2023

Part of an old-growth deferral area is shown in one of Downie Timber's cut blocks north of Revelstoke, B.C. in this undated handout photo. Handout photo by Eddie Petryshen

Logging firm wants to avoid cutting old growth, but B.C. orders it to pay

A British Columbia company that wants to avoid logging sections of at-risk old growth was told by the Crown corporation that manages B.C.'s public forests to cut the trees down or pay to leave them standing, its chief forester said.

News, Politics | March 6th 2023

Photojournalist Amber Bracken, lawyer Sean Hern, and Emma Gilchrist, editor-in-chief and executive director of The Narwhal, listen during a news conference, in Vancouver, on Feb. 13, 2023. Photo by The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

Photojournalist, news organization file lawsuit against RCMP over photographer arrest

Canadian photojournalist Amber Bracken and news organization the Narwhal have filed a lawsuit against the RCMP, claiming Bracken was wrongfully arrested and detained for three nights while reporting on a British Columbia pipeline dispute.

News, Politics | February 14th 2023

Softwood lumber is pictured in Richmond, B.C., on Tuesday, April 25, 2017. File photo by The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward

Mill closures threaten fabric of rural B.C. towns

When Mayor Shane Brienen of Houston, B.C., thinks about the impact of the impending closure of the town's sawmill, he worries not only about the economic fallout.

News, Politics | February 8th 2023

First Nations women in B.C. more likely to die from toxic drugs

Indigenous people, especially women, are dying from toxic drugs at disproportionately high rates in British Columbia as the overdose crisis continues "unabated," nearly seven years after the province first declared a public health emergency, said the top doctor for the First Nations Health Authority.

News, Politics | February 1st 2023

'The ultimate step in colonialism' is Indigenous identity fraud, Métis lawyer says

Since Grey Owl a century ago, people of European descent have falsely claimed to be Indigenous for personal gain or a sense of absolution, but one Métis legal expert says it would take a psychiatrist to try to fully answer, "why?"

News | January 25th 2023

Senator Lillian Dyck stands outside the Senate Foyer on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017. File photo by The Canadian Press/Justin Tang

Retired Cree senator lashes out against Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond's heritage claims

Retired senator Lillian Dyck said she was "stunned" to see reports last fall questioning the Indigenous heritage of former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, whose story she had related to, and whose career she had celebrated.

News | January 20th 2023