[asia-apec 739] Van Sun: Cracks in Liberal defence, boycott KL?

[David Webster]

Note the talk of Canada boycotting the KL APEC summit, at the end of this
story. Now that would be presumptuous, given last year's events!


Protesters should get funds: Liberal MP
The Vancouver Sun

Peter O'Neil, Sun Ottawa Bureau Vancouver Sun

OTTAWA -- MP Ted McWhinney, whose riding includes the
University of B.C. campus where students were
pepper-sprayed during last year's APEC summit, said
Thursday that Ottawa should stop refusing to fund
students' legal costs at the RCMP Public Complaints
Commission hearings that start next week.

                  But McWhinney (Vancouver Quadra) joined fellow Liberal
                  MPs to narrowly defeat an opposition motion to force
                  Prime Minister Jean Chretien to testify at a special
                  inquiry on his involvement in security plans for the
                  leaders' conference.

                  McWhinney's defence of students before committee
                  prompted NDP foreign affairs critic Svend Robinson to
                  propose a motion calling on the government to pick up
                  the legal tab.

                  The motion will be voted on next week by the all-party
                  foreign affairs committee.

                  But even though McWhinney went one further by agreeing
                  the RCMP complaints commission may be unable to answer
                  questions about alleged political interference, he and
                  other government MPs were not spared from scathing
                  criticism at the hands of Reform, Bloc Quebecois, NDP
                  and Tory MPs.

                  The Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation issue has hounded
                  Chretien in the Commons ever since MPs returned from
                  summer break two weeks ago.

                  The opposition has accused Chretien and senior members
                  of his staff of going too far to appease then-Indonesian
                  dictator Suharto and other world leaders.

                  "It would be easier to find Elvis Presley alive and well
                  than to find a Liberal who will accept responsibility
                  for wrongdoing," Reform Leader Preston Manning said
                  following a rare appearance at the committee.

                  "The more this kind of stonewalling goes on, the more
                  the impression the public gets that there is something
                  to hide."

                  Robinson said the Liberals' refusal to probe the Asia
                  Pacific Economic Forum meeting and the RCMP's arrest,
                  pepper-spraying and strip-searching of some protesters
                  marks a "black day" for democracy.

                  "The bottom line here is that we've got a bunch of
                  Liberal trained seals who lined up to cover up and to
                  stone-wall for the prime minister," Robinson
                  (Burnaby-Douglas) said.

                  Solicitor General Andy Scott, who refused to give the
                  students funding, told the Commons later Thursday that
                  he believes MPs are just trying to use the foreign
                  affairs committee to grandstand.

                  Federal Court Justice Barbara Reed ruled in July that
                  the complaints commission is within its rights to ask
                  Ottawa to pick up the complainants' legal tab.

                  Meanwhile, the Chretien government continues to ponder
                  whether Canada should step into another human rights
                  furore at next month's APEC summit in Malaysia.

                  Rumblings about boycotting the summit have arisen since
                  Malaysia's former finance minister, Anwar Ibrahim, was
                  imprisoned last week on charges of sodomy and
                  corruption.

                  "There is a concern on the part of the Canadian
                  government about the turn of events there,"
                  International Trade Minister Sergio Marchi said in an
                  interview Thursday.

                  For now, however, Chretien spokesman Jennifer Lang said
                  the prime minister -- like U.S. President Bill Clinton
                  -- is still planning to attend the Kuala Lumpur summit.

                  Southam News

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