[asia-apec 825] Van Sun: Ottawa attacks critics
David Webster
davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca
Sat Oct 24 07:21:22 JST 1998
Three articles from the Vancouver Sun:
-- Ottawa claim of bias may shut down APEC hearing
-- PMO demands CBC ombudsman look into APEC coverage
-- Chretien avoids question of his role in APEC security
Comment: Looks like a counter-attack on media critics and the government's
own "independent" commission by the Prime Minister's Office. A guest column
by one of Vancouver's most respected media figures follows as a separate
item.
Last Updated: Friday 23 October 1998 TOP STORIES
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Ottawa claim of bias may shut down APEC hearing
The Vancouver Sun
Jeff Lee Vancouver Sun
The future of the RCMP probe into police
conduct at APEC is in grave doubt as a
result of allegations that the chairman,
Gerald Morin, prejudged the hearings by
saying he believes the police were at fault
in controlling student protests.
The Vancouver Sun has learned that the federal
government raised an allegation of bias against Morin
Thursday.
It is alleged that he told people at a casino in Prince
Albert, Sask., last spring, in the presence of an
off-duty aboriginal RCMP officer, that he had made up
his mind and believed police acted improperly at APEC.
The allegations, which were not made public, but were
delivered in a letter shortly before the RCMP Public
Complaints Commission was to resume hearings Thursday,
immediately caused the panel to halt the proceedings
pending an investigation.
Although lawyers for the RCMP and the federal government
were told of the reasons for the adjournment, none of
the other counsel, including lawyers for students and
complainants, was briefed. The government lawyers and
the RCMP all entered into an undertaking not to disclose
the new information.
Commission counsel Chris Considine repeatedly refused to
make any comment about why the hearings abruptly halted,
saying only that the public would be told the reasons
today.
The unusual level of secrecy led to rampant rumours that
the commission had discovered documents had been
withheld, that audio tapes had been destroyed and that
there had been political interference by the federal
government.
The allegations against Morin will have a devastating
effect, sources close to the inquiry said.
The allegations that Morin tainted the inquiry arose
after the aboriginal RCMP officer in Morin's home town
recounted how the chairman had allegedly told fellow
gamblers at a casino that he had already determined the
police were at fault in several pepper-spraying
incidents at the University of B.C.
The sources said the allegations will likely result in
the panel being dismissed and may even result in the
entire matter being taken out of the hands of the public
complaints commission. Coupled with the allegations
Solicitor-General Andy Scott also prejudged the panel in
conversations on an airplane, this new development will
likely force the government to halt the inquiry, sources
said.
"There is a decent chance the PCC process will get blown
away when you combine this with Andy Scott's
statements," said a source who requested anonymity.
According to information provided to the commission,
Morin is alleged to have visited a casino in Prince
Albert last March shortly after the panel adjourned for
the summer. The off-duty officer, who knew Morin from
his local reputation, overheard him tell another person
sitting at a gaming table that he had just returned from
the APEC hearings in Vancouver.
During the conversation the officer alleges he heard
Morin say he had made up his mind and that he believed
RCMP officers were at fault in several confrontations
with protesters.
"I know what the decision will be when I go into the
hearings in the fall," Morin is alleged to have said,
according to the account the federal government
delivered to the commission Thursday.
Sources said the off-duty officer didn't pay much
attention to the remark until last week, after questions
of Scott's bias arose and coverage of the APEC hearings
began to get national attention. At that point, he
approached his commanding officer, who in turn alerted
the federal government. The witness' account was
verified in several interviews, sources said.
The allegations come at a time when the inquiry is under
fire from protesters' lawyers who allege the commission
is institutionally biased. Lawyer Cameron Ward is
applying to the Federal Court of Canada for an order
quashing the hearings, saying the commission has a
long-standing bias in favour of the RCMP.
The Liberal government has come under increasing fire
from opposition parties and advocacy groups who say the
complainants to the panel should be given legal funding,
something the Liberals have refused to do.
The panel is investigating allegations police used
unnecessary force in controlling the protests, engaged
in arbitrary and illegal detentions and violated
peoples' constitutional rights of free speech. It is
also looking at whether Prime Minister Jean Chretien's
office directed security planning at APEC and ordered
police to pepper-spray protesters.
The panel was supposed to hear one more day of testimony
today before recessing for at least 10 days. Before the
allegations were made against Morin, lawyers said the
hearings could last as long as six months.
But the latest crisis began early Thursday just before
the commission was about to convene the hearing. Federal
lawyer Ivan Whitehall delivered a letter to Considine
setting out the information the RCMP had received from
Prince Albert, a source said. Considine conferred with
Morin and panel members Vina Starr and John Wright
briefly. The hearings were to be adjourned for two
hours, but the panel later said it would not meet again
until today, at which time there would be a statement.
Last updated: Friday 23 October 1998 NATIONAL NEWS
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PMO demands CBC ombudsman look into APEC coverage
-------------------------------------------------------
BRUCE CHEADLE
OTTAWA (CP) - The Prime Ministers Office has demanded
a formal investigation by the CBC ombudsman into the
television network's coverage of the APEC security
inquiry.
In a letter made public Thursday, PMO director of
communications Peter Donolo accused the
government-funded broadcaster of employing "a double
standard" and of "broadcasting innuendo,
unsubstantiated allegations and false statements."
The unprecedented public war of words erupted last
week over e-mail correspondence between a CBC reporter
covering the APEC summit protests in Vancouver and one
of the students who is alleging police brutality and
suppression of dissent.
The private e-mail between reporter Terry Milewski and
student Craig Jones was made public after the RCMP
Public Complaints Commission subpoenaed all Jones's
computer records, including love letters to his
girlfriend.
Donolo complained to the CBC on Oct. 16 that Milewski
referred to the federal government as "the Forces of
Darkness" while providing Jones with a list of
questions he had put to the PMO that should be
followed up.
Milewski was pulled off the story by the CBC.
But the broadcaster also replied to Donolo with an
equally tart letter, complaining of the "sustained
unwillingness" of the PMO and the RCMP to answer
questions on the controversy.
Donolo has now fired back, saying the CBC is the only
major media outlet not to reveal the contentious
contents of Milewski's e-mails "in any substantive
way."
"The CBC uses due process in refusing to comment on
Mr. Milewski's e-mails, yet rejects the legitimacy of
the government to cite due process in not commenting
on leaked documents," Donolo wrote.
With the formalities of a written complaint and CBC's
written reply now completed, Donolo insisted the
matter be referred to the CBC ombudsman.
Meanwhile a Reform MP on Thursday defended Milewski
and called into question the government's tactics at
the inquiry.
Jim Abbott said "a fishing expedition" by federal
lawyers forced the exposure of all Jones's
correspondence.
"As a result of that being splashed all over the place
you now have someone who was working very aggressively
on this story pulled off," said Abbott.
Last updated: Friday 23 October 1998 NATIONAL NEWS
---------------------------------------------------------
Chretien avoids question of his role in APEC security
-------------------------------------------------------
BRUCE CHEADLE
OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Jean
Chretien says he is eager to learn
the truth about any alleged police
wrongdoing during student protests
at last year's APEC summit in
Vancouver.
But he continued to avoid a direct
answer Wednesday about whether he will voluntarily
appear before the RCMP Public Complaints Commission to
explain his own role in the controversial security
arrangements.
"We want Canadians to know exactly what happened
there," Chretien said in the Commons in response to a
Reform demand that he testify.
"But I know that the Opposition, when they see the
commission making progress, they are afraid to know
the truth. We're not afraid of the truth at all,
because we know that if something wrong had been done
by the police, you know, we will be informed."
The commission has heard and seen video evidence this
week that RCMP officers gave nine seconds warning
before blasting protesters with pepper spray at the
summit site on the University of British Columbia
campus last November.
But the inquiry has yet to delve into evidence that
student demonstrators say shows the Prime Minister's
Office ordered the crackdown to save visiting
Indonesian dictator Suharto from political
embarrassment.
"We want to know about the prime minister's actions,
not the RCMP," Reform deputy leader Deborah Grey said.
"We know they're being investigated."
Members of the government continue to stress that the
inquiry must be allowed to do its job of examining the
role of police during the student protests. But they
are silent on the equally pressing allegation that the
crackdown was politically motivated and directed.
Reform MP Jim Abbott said Wednesday that RCMP sources
have told him the commission should have as evidence
"boxes and boxes" of police radio tapes or transcripts
from the summit.
Abbott says those tapes, allegedly containing repeated
references to Chretien's former director of operations
Jean Carle, have not been submitted to the inquiry.
"The people I have been speaking to said Jean Carle's
name was on and on and on (those tapes)," said Abbott.
"(Police) knew that he had the signature and the power
of the prime minister behind him."
Commission counsel Chris Considine said in Vancouver
he would only talk about evidence during the hearing.
"As you will have seen, we have not yet got to the
radio transcripts in any detail," said Considine.
"That will be coming up a little later and our
investigation in respect to transcripts and any other
documents is ongoing."
Carle and Chretien's current chief of staff, Jean
Pelletier, have volunteered to testify but it is
expected to be several months before they appear
before the commission.
Liberal solidarity on a decsion to deny federal
funding for lawyers representing the protesters at the
hearings was called into question by opposition MPs
when two Liberal backbenchers abstained in a vote on
an NDP motion on the matter Tuesday.
Neither Clifford Lincoln nor John Godfrey was talking
Wednesday about their decisions. Godfrey sprinted out
of a Liberal caucus meeting to avoid questions and
neither MP returned calls to their offices.
"They don't want to say anything in public," Grey
charged outside the Commons.
"They don't want to get the hook."
Liberal House leader Don Boudria replied the
government has "no lessons to learn from, of all
people, the Reform party on autocratic rule."
_ _ _
\ / "Long words Bother me."
\ / -- Winnie the Pooh
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