Privacy? Security? No problem for media
He held up his smartphone in triumph and handed it to me. “Two minutes,” he smiled. The red dot of Google Maps stood out in sharp contrast with the green and blue of the trees and water.
Two minutes.
That’s how it long it took a student in my UPEI journalism course this week to find the reported temporary home of Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex.
The class went momentarily quiet, apparently stunned by how easy it had been. A few flicks of a finger in a room filled with the delightfully rowdy sounds of students debating ethical issues in journalism, and there it was.
Just head along Madrona Drive to where it swings left and becomes Towner Road in North Saanich, a short hike north of the city of Victoria on Vancouver Island. It’s right after the little walking path with the sign saying, “No fires permitted. Strictly enforced.”
See the decidedly low-tech gate on the right with the slightly dilapidated fencing on both sides, and the blue recycling bin tucked into a corner in the bushes?
That’s it.
The 12,000-square mansion surrounded on three sides by water is exactly where the news item, featuring about 30 seconds of drone video, said it would be. The video provided a detailed, 270-degree view of the property. I turned to the class. They had been debating the ethics of releasing that video to the world. It’s a world where anyone with a gun, knife or bomb might try to make international news, if they could get close enough to attack a member of the British royal family, I said. The threat is real.
The estimated cost of protecting Markle and her husband, Prince Harry? About $10 million a year, if they choose to spend part of their time in Canada – a plan made in part to escape the sometimes hideously racist media coverage they have endured in England.
The packed class, divided into three competing news teams for the exercise, had five minutes to decide. They had a lot to consider.
If they ran the video, they could force the 38-year-old mother and her not-yet oneyear-old son Archie to flee the hospitality of the people who had offered them a temporary home.
Security issues might make it
too risky to stay. A potential attacker would have detailed video of the site.
But if they didn’t run the video, someone else would, came the countering argument. Besides, she married into the royal family, she knew what she was getting into.
The students said run it. Capt. Miles Arsenault faced a similar choice. He runs Bay to Bay Charters near the home.
“The newest water taxi” in the area, according to its website. Established in 2019.
Like any new business, he was thrilled when a client called. They were in town to make a movie and wanted to hire him.
But when they showed up, he realized they were reporters from New York and Japan looking to buzz the home.
He’d only been in business six months.
“It’s hard to turn down money when you are starting a new business,” he told a reporter, “but this one was an easy choice to turn down.”
Easy for him. Apparently, it was a good deal tougher for some members of the Canadian media. It ran.