MJ-2 student JANICE MANCHEE, studying at Carleton while on education leave from the Public Service Alliance of Canada, felt the weight of the long arm of the law last week. She says her union experience, combined with the stand-your-ground advice she got in her introductory reporting course and the rights she learned in her media law course, served her well.

She sends this report.

Picture this. Manchee setting up her camera outside of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.

It's four days before the non-violent civil disobedience demonstration demanding the release of the FTAA documents. She struggles with the tripod from hell. An RCMP cruiser rolls by. The officer smiles. Manchee smiles back and continues wrestling.

She notices out of the corner of her well-practiced union eye that the cruiser has pulled over to the side of the street and she is being observed in the rear-view mirror. She continues to set up. As she snaps the camera in place on the tripod, the cruiser rolls up again and stops. The officer motions her over.

"I'm just curious," he says, "what're you doing?" She hesitates, visions of Klaus scowling clear in her mind.

"Why?" she growls Rupert-like.

"Just curious," he replies.

Then she remembers her car is illegally parked at the NRC.

"It's a graduate project for journalism at Carleton," she caves.

He smiles.

"But, why do you want to know," she pushes.

"You know," he says, 'dear' all over his face, "sometimes foreigners come and want to take pictures and we don't know how they're going to use them."

"Does it matter? It's a public building and this is a public sidewalk," she says, thinking journalism law...

He starts to get nervous "No, no, it's just, they're foreign...and, well, we don't know..."

"Say," says Manchee, "does this have anything to do with the demo on April 2?"

He smiles weakly.

Manchee snorts and goes back to the camera. She shoots to her heart's content.