[asia-apec 779] Toronto Sun: protest in winnipeg

[Brian Fuller]

                        The Toronto Sun, October 9, 1998

HEADLINE: PM IN JOKING MOOD OVER PEPPER SPRAY 200 PROTEST CHRETIEN, SMASH
WINDOWS IN WINNIPEG

BYLINE: ANNE DAWSON, OTTAWA BUREAU

DATELINE: WINNIPEG

 BODY:
   After apologizing for a previous caustic comment about pepper spray
following the rough treatment of students by Mounties at last year's
APECsummit, Prime Minister Jean Chretien made another crack about it
last night.

   Here to attend a $ 300-a-plate fundraiser dinner for 1,000 Liberal
Party faithful, Chretien kicked off his evening address with a joke
about the pepper-spray protest.

   "Usually, it is a rubber-chicken dinner, but when we come to the
West we have beef," he said of the prime rib dinner he was about to
dig into.

   "Sometimes we have pepper steaks."

   The crowd roared with laughter.

   APOLOGIZED

   Last month, Chretien publicly apologized for the way student
protesters He also apologized for joking in response to reporters'
questions about therld.  police use of pepper spray on the human
rights demonstrators.

   His comment at the time was: "For me, pepper, I put it on my
plate."

   Last night's comment is only likely to fuel the fire that's still
brewing over this matter -- that Chretien doesn't take the issue of
human rights seriously.

   An inquiry into the RCMP treatment of those student protesters
which began Monday already has bogged down in another storm of
controversy.

   Solicitor General Andy Scott allegedly was overheard on an airplane
talking openly and indiscreetly about the anticipated outcome of that
inquiry.  Chretien, who has faced calls for Scott's resignation every
day this week, has steadfastly refused to seek it.

   Meanwhile, a demonstration protesting Chretien's handling of the
APECaffair turned ugly here last night when windows were broken and at
least one arrest was made.

   Some 200 demonstrators -- many donning surgical masks in case of a
pepper-spray attack -- chanted and waved placards protesting what they
call Chretien's blatant disregard for human rights at APEC.

   "He violated our rights in favour of appeasing foreign dictators
who are mass murderers," said Derrick Martens, 21, a University of
Manitoba student who led the student protesters.

   "If he would have taken the time to meet with us, I would have
asked him to treat protesters with more respect."

   Public servants were also in the crowd demonstrating the Liberal
government's decision to appeal a human-rights ruling that ordered it
to fork out up to $ 6 billion in pay equity for public servants.

   But the student and public servant protesters waited in vain
outside the Winnipeg Convention Centre. Chretien was whisked away in
another door and kept far from the angry crowd.

   He also refused to answer a Toronto Sun reporter's question about
the protesters.

GRAPHIC: photo of JEAN CHRETIEN "We have beef"