[asia-apec 828] Van Sun: inquiry fatally flawed
David Webster
davidweb at interchange.ubc.ca
Sun Oct 25 12:20:53 JST 1998
Headline story, followed by editorial calling for a real PUBLIC inquiry.
Last Updated: Saturday 24 October 1998 TOP STORIES
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Inquiry leader denies bias as APEC hearings adjourn
The Vancouver Sun
Jeff Lee
Vancouver Sun
APEC inquiry chair
Gerald Morin turned
Friday to the Federal
Court of Canada to
clear him of
government allegations
he prejudged the
outcome of the RCMP
Public Complaints
Commission hearings.
But even if he is cleared of the allegations, lawyers
for both sides say he will be the captain of a crippled
inquiry.
And a Simon Fraser University ethicist said the
commission is now so badly wounded that the federal
government should cancel the inquiry and launch a
judicial inquiry.
In the meantime, the inquiry, which has in recent weeks
been bombarded with other allegations of bias,
suggestions of political and media interference, and
problems of legal funding for complainants, has been
shelved for at least three weeks while the government
tries to determine if the hearings can be salvaged.
Morin refused to resign Friday from the panel after
federal government lawyers raised allegations of bias
against him over comments he allegedly made in a Prince
Albert, Sask., casino last spring.
The allegations against Morin are the gravest threat yet
to the on-again, off-again inquiry, which is trying to
determine whether police abused protesters at APEC and
whether Prime Minister Jean Chretien's office interfered
in security matters at the conference.
Morin "unequivocally" denied allegations Friday that he
had told people at the casino in his home town that he
had decided the RCMP were heavy-handed in their control
of protesters at APEC a year ago.
The allegations, first reported in a story broken by The
Vancouver Sun Friday, were made by Constable Russell
Black, an RCMP officer in Prince Albert, who told
federal lawyers he overheard Morin make the statements
while gambling at the Northern Lights Casino.
On Friday, the commission panel convened long enough for
Morin to say the allegations are false and that he
believed he could continue to chair the inquiry.
"I can say for the record that I unequivocally deny the
allegations. I have not done anything wrong. I have not
prejudged these matters. I will not prejudge these
matters. I will only judge these matters after all the
evidence is in," he said. "I have confidence that I can
continue to chair this panel of this hearing."
During his entire address, broadcast live across Canada,
his two co-panelists, Vina Starr and John Wright, sat
ramrod-straight and looked neither to the right nor the
left.
But lawyers for both the RCMP and several student
protesters say it will be virtually impossible for the
panel to continue and they will argue in court the
inquiry is so tainted it must be halted.
Noting that the court is already being asked by
protesters' lawyer Cameron Ward to rule whether
Solicitor-General Andy Scott's alleged airplane
conversations about APEC have biased the commission,
RCMP lawyer George Macintosh said if the court finds
Morin also had a bias, the hearings will have to be
halted.
"If both complaints of bias are made out, I will be
saying that the commission is no longer an appropriate
forum in which to deal with the allegations being made
against the RCMP," he said.
Ward, who has long argued the commission has an
"institutional bias" in favor of the RCMP, was in rare
agreement with Macintosh.
"It is difficult to imagine an outcome other than one
that disqualifies Mr. Morin and the entire panel," he
said.
Ward said he is suspicious of the timing of the
allegations, which come right as lawyers for the
protesters argue that the government is withholding
documents and other material.
But he said the allegations are so serious that they
must be heard along with his own application that
Scott's comments have irreparably harmed the inquiry
process.
Mark Wexler, an ethics professor at Simon Fraser
University, said even if Morin is cleared, it will be
difficult for any of the lawyers who would address him
in the hearings to believe his opinions might not now be
coloured. Combined with all of the other problems that
have beset the panel, the allegations have discredited
the inquiry and the government should halt it, he said.
"I think they would be wise to not put more patches on a
bicycle tire that is leaking in several places. My
advice would be to move to a judicial inquiry," Wexler
said.
Both Ward and Macintosh also questioned how lawyers who
will have to cross-examine Morin in Federal Court over
the allegations could then expect Morin and the panel,
once it reconvenes, to not be coloured by the incident.
Federal government lawyer Ivan Whitehall delivered the
allegations of bias to commission counsel Chris
Considine Thursday, after both he and police in
Saskatchewan interviewed Black about what he overheard
in the casino. Considine has steadfastly refused to
comment.
Whitehall said Friday the allegations are extremely
serious, but would not comment on whether the inquiry
should be halted.
"This is a very important matter. Clearly the decision
of the Federal Court will affect the life of this
tribunal," he said.
Whitehall became aware of the allegations after Black
approached superior officers last week saying he had
information about comments Morin allegedly made in a
casino.
Two taped statements by Black -- one made on Tuesday in
Prince Albert and one Wednesday in Vancouver -- will be
entered as evidence at the Federal Court hearing.
Black said he was sitting at a poker table at the
Northern Lights Casino in Prince Albert last spring when
Morin sat down and began a conversation with another
gambler.
Black said he overheard Morin say he had just returned
from Vancouver, where the RCMP Public Complaints
Commission had just begun hearings into APEC. Morin
allegedly said that he would be chairman of the panel
and that he had already determined that the RCMP were
too heavy-handed in their use of pepper spray to control
protests.
"From the conversation he had and from the way I was
listening to it, I knew in my mind right there and then
his decision was gonna be against the RCMP," Black told
Whitehall.
But Black's allegations could not be substantiated. He
told investigators in the earlier interview he couldn't
remember the day or month in which the conversation took
place, and he didn't know the names of either the other
gambler or the dealer. He took no notes and he never
told anyone about the overheard conversation until last
week, according to transcripts of the interviews.
When asked why he never said anything until now, Black
said he didn't remember the incident until watching news
coverage of allegations that Scott had also prejudged
the APEC hearings in an conversation with an airline
seatmate.
The officer has since hired a lawyer and will not make
any public statements.
Jim Williams, lawyer for Staff-Sergeant Hugh Stewart,
who was accused of abusing students during arrests and
pepper-sprayings, said the allegations will not help
Stewart clear his name.
"The matter remains unresolved, and remains enveloped in
controversy. The issue has always been to have an
inquiry to determine the facts and determine the truth.
And again, this will be an impediment to that process,"
he said.
Jonathan Oppenheim, one of several complainants to the
commission, said Morin shouldn't continue to be involved
in the inquiry.
"There's no way that Mr. Morin can now arrive at a
reasonable decision, just based on the fact that it's
tainted already," he said.
Last Updated: Saturday 24 October 1998 OPINION
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Today's Editorial:
It's time to replace tainted APEC probe
With accusations of bias floating from both sides at the
RCMP hearings, the public is justified in being
skeptical that this is the proper forum to investigate
police and protesters' behaviour.
Vancouver Sun
Two weeks after Solicitor-General Andy Scott's
ill-advised discussion of the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation conference inquiry cast doubts on the
inquiry's credibility another shoe has dropped, and a
nicely matched though sorry set they make. RCMP Public
Complaints Commission chair Gerald Morin has adjourned
the proceedings for at least three weeks after being
accused of doing what Mr. Scott did.
Mr. Scott told friend and Liberal party supporter Fred
Toole, during an East Coast shuttle flight, he believed
the RCMP tribunal would discipline several officers for
their handling of protesters at the economic summit,
and, specifically, "Hughie [most likely Staff-Sergeant
Hugh Stewart] might be the guy who takes the fall."
That the solicitor-general would hint at a set-up and
discuss it in a public space did nothing for public
confidence in the commission's ability, or inclination,
to find the truth. Allegations of similar bad judgment
by Mr. Morin, if proven, ought to scuttle the inquiry.
RCMP Const. Russell Black says he heard Mr. Morin, at a
Prince Albert, Sask., casino after the inquiry began
last spring, say RCMP who pepper-sprayed APEC protesters
were in the wrong and when the commission resumed in the
fall he knew what its conclusions would be.
The RCMP, understandably, is concerned about prejudice
against it, while the protesters are applying to the
Federal Court of Canada to end the hearings -- on the
perfectly contrary grounds the commission is
historically biased in favour of the Mounties.
The Federal Court will also consider the complaint
against Mr. Morin, who denies any wrongdoing or
prejudice; so far, no corroboration of Mr. Black's
charge is reported.
Regardless of the court's findings in his case Mr. Morin
appears to be in an untenable position. When the
hearings resume he would be considering evidence against
the same party that accused him of prejudgment. The
RCMP, which already has a fear of bias on the part of
the commission, could hardly be expected to view the
commission with any less apprehension.
So -- both the complainants and accused distrust the
judges, joined by the third and largest party in the
affair, the public, who to a large extent view all this
with the same suspicion as they would any authority's
internal investigation. Beyond the question of whether
RCMP officers were excessively aggressive is the issue
of the prime minister's office and how much it
influenced what happened last November. The APEC
incident raises many questions which require a full and
fair examination.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien should recognize that this
inquiry is tainted beyond hope of credibility and must
be abandoned. It's time to appoint a public inquiry.
_ _ _
\ / "Long words Bother me."
\ / -- Winnie the Pooh
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