[asia-apec 648] Van Sun: APEC fallout continues

[David Webster]

>Vancouver Sun, September 10/98
>
>3 stories -- news report
>        -- editorial
>        -- opinion piece
>
>Victims of pepper spray vow to boycott APEC probe
>The Vancouver Sun
>
>Rick Ouston Vancouver Sun and Canadian Press
>
>Most of the people who claim they were pepper-sprayed by
>police during a controversial protest last year say they
>will not attend an inquiry into alleged police
>wrongdoing -- even though they've been summoned to
>attend, according to other protesters who held a news
>conference Wednesday.
>
>                  The protesters also said they plan to subpoena Prime
>                  Minister Jean Chretien so he can be questioned about
>                  what, if any, involvement the prime minister's office
>                  had in directing police to break up the protest at the
>                  University of B.C., held during the Asia Pacific
>                  Economic Cooperation conference, in Vancouver last
>                  November.
>
>                  Meanwhile, a lawyer for 27 students pepper-sprayed by
>                  police during the protest planned to be in court today
>                  to seek an adjournment into the RCMP Public Complaints
>                  Commission inquiry into the affair.
>
>                  The commission is scheduled to start hearing evidence
>                  into the police action Sept. 14, but several of those
>                  who claim they were victims of out-of-control police
>                  said at the news conference they need time to examine
>                  documents disclosed by the RCMP to prepare their case.
>
>                  Alissa Westergaard-Thorpe, who said she represents 26
>                  other people who were manhandled by police at the APEC
>                  protest, said two boxes of evidence have been released,
>                  but the RCMP Complaints Commission has retained another
>                  38 boxes of material that was gathered but not released
>                  to complainants.
>
>                  "There's no way we can investigate something so
>                  important when 95 per cent of the relevant information
>                  is unavailable," she said.
>
>                  During the same news conference, other protesters said
>                  that the majority of the more than 50 people
>                  pepper-sprayed by police have decided not to attend the
>                  commission hearing if it goes ahead, even though they
>                  have received summonses which make it an offence to
>                  refuse to attend.
>
>                  The protesters also charged that the two boxes of
>                  internal police and government documents released to
>                  them through the complaints commission last week contain
>                  evidence police were acting under direct orders of
>                  Chretien.
>
>                  The protesters contended that aggressive police actions
>                  were a direct result of the Canadian government's desire
>                  to ensure that Suharto not be embarrassed, distressed or
>                  intruded upon by protesters during the APEC conference.
>
>                  Chretien has denied the claims, telling reporters
>                  Wednesday that he had no personal role in instructing
>                  police and he will not answer questions at the inquiry.
>
>                  "I don't have to explain anything," Chretien said. "I
>                  did not talk to any RCMP person. I just asked to make
>                  sure that the security of our visitors was properly
>                  served."
>
>                  Chretien, in the face of mounting criticism, insisted
>                  that the whole affair "was handled very well by the
>                  police."
>
>                  Without mentioning Suharto by name, he acknowledged that
>                  some foreign officials expressed worries about security
>                  before the conference but denied he gave any assurances
>                  that he would suppress demonstrations.
>
>                  "It was my duty to say: 'No. You come in Canada, there
>                  might be some protesters.' "
>
>                  Although Chretien said he would not testify, spokesman
>                  Peter Donolo said the prime minister's chief of staff,
>                  Jean Pelletier, and former operations director Jean
>                  Carle will give evidence under oath.
>
>                  But Westergaard-Thorpe said her group has received legal
>                  advice that, under rules governing the public complaints
>                  process, they can issue a subpoena to force Chretien to
>                  testify.
>
>                  Vancouver lawyer Cameron Ward, who said he is
>                  voluntarily representing several of the APEC protesters,
>                  said he has arranged for a tele-conference from the
>                  Federal Court of Canada courthouse in Vancouver with an
>                  Ottawa judge who will hear his request for an
>                  adjournment today.
>
>                  Ward also charged that his clients' right to summons
>                  witnesses to the inquiry was being denied.
>
>                  Lawyer Chris Considine, an independent counsel appointed
>                  by the complaints commission, said he will oppose the
>                  adjournment request today.
>
>                  "We have 120 witnesses ready to go, six weeks set aside,
>                  three independent panel members hearing this case which
>                  come from outside of town, two of which come from
>                  outside B.C.," he said.
>
>                  "If the matter is adjourned, it will be difficult to get
>                  the matter on again for a number of months, and it is
>                  important that these public issues be reviewed as
>                  quickly as possible bearing in mind the interest that
>                  exists."
>
>                  He said witnesses are expected to include RCMP officers,
>                  complainants, foreign affairs officials, UBC employees
>                  and "of course people from the prime minister's office."
>
>                  Documents include e-mails, memorandums and material from
>                  the prime minister's office, Considine said.
>
>
>[Image] [Image]  Last Updated: Thursday 10 September 1998         OPINION
>                  ---------------------------------------------------------
>Today's editorial:
>
>Being embarrassed vs. being in danger
>                  Using pepper-spray on demonstrators at the APEC summit
>                  was the lesser of two evils, according to secret
>                  documents. But what promises did the federal government
>                  make to visiting dictators?
>
>                  Vancouver Sun
>                  The unofficial leak has become an official leak. In
>                  media circles it's been rumoured for months that the
>                  RCMP's aggressive pepper-spraying of a crowd of
>                  protesters against then-president Suharto of Indonesia
>                  during last November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
>                  meeting in Vancouver was carried out only to save the
>                  crowd, mostly students, from something infinitely worse:
>                  the bullets of Suharto's security guards.
>
>                  Some in the crowd of 1,000 were pressing against a
>                  temporary fence along Suharto's motorcade route at the
>                  University of B.C. when the Mounties began
>                  pepper-spraying them -- prematurely, haphazardly,
>                  overzealously, totally unnecessarily, by several
>                  accounts.
>
>                  Internal government documents leaked in recent days
>                  bolster the theory that Suharto's armed bodyguards might
>                  have opened fire if the crowd had pushed through the
>                  RCMP security cordon -- and that that will be the core
>                  of the police argument when the RCMP public complaints
>                  commission hearing into the incident begins on Monday.
>                  In short: What would the protesters rather have lost,
>                  their civil rights or their lives?
>
>                  Put aside that that would be an enormously self-serving
>                  argument by the RCMP. Put aside also the obvious fact
>                  that the matter shouldn't be prejudged, and that
>                  evidence before the commission may change previous
>                  perceptions, its nuances perhaps revealing that both
>                  protesters and police were caught in a classic drama
>                  where order and freedom are not black and white but
>                  sometimes fall into the no-man's-land of a morally
>                  ambiguous grey. Even Suharto's regime, though repressive
>                  and corrupt, allowed more freedom of protest than many
>                  others that have survived it. (Nor should it be
>                  forgotten that there were campus posters and loose talk
>                  about a "citizen's arrest" of Suharto as a war
>                  criminal.)
>
>                  But will the hearing fully expose the federal
>                  government's role in the matter? The prima facie
>                  evidence doesn't look promising.
>
>                  There's a wide world of difference between Suharto being
>                  embarrassed and being in danger. Did Prime Minister Jean
>                  Chretien and, even more so, Foreign Minister Lloyd
>                  Axworthy wag their tails with such puppy-dog eagerness
>                  to assure Suharto and his Canadian ambassador that he
>                  wouldn't be embarrassed on his visit that they were
>                  willing to suspend Canadians' democratic rights to that
>                  end?
>
>                  If so, as the leaked documents at least suggest, they
>                  will have not only unpardonably compromised the rights
>                  of Canadians and besmirched our democratic principles.
>                  They may have emboldened Suharto's retinue -- which even
>                  asked the Mounties (who reacted coldly) if they would
>                  silence media criticism of Suharto while he was here --
>                  to think they could get away with the kind of rough
>                  stuff they practised at home. Even shooting people.
>
>
>
>
> [Image] [Image]  Last Updated: Thursday 10 September 1998         OPINION
>                  ---------------------------------------------------------
>Guest column:
>
>How far should police go in protecting dictators?
>                  Free speech and freedom of assembly lie at the heart of
>                  what it means to live in a democracy. Without them
>                  citizens are not able to exercise sovereignty over their
>                  government.
>
>                  Andrew Irvine Vancouver Sun
>                  By Andrew Irvine              Jeff Vinnick, Reuters /
>                  President,
>                  B.C. Civil Liberties       AFTERMATH: A protester covers
>                  Asssociation               his face after being hit with
>                                             pepper spray during a
>                  Did police officers use    demonstration at the APEC
>                  excessive force while      summit. Hearings begin Monday
>                  trying to control          to determine whether police
>                  student protesters at      used excessive force.
>                  last year's APEC
>                  conference in
>                  Vancouver?
>
>                  Were the free speech rights of demonstrators
>                  inappropriately compromised?
>
>                  Was the RCMP influenced by political directives, rather
>                  than by security concerns, when carrying out its mandate
>                  to protect conference delegates?
>
>                  When public complaint commission hearings begin Monday
>                  into events surrounding the November 1997 Asia Pacific
>                  Economic Cooperation conference, the B.C. Civil
>                  Liberties Association will try to obtain answers to all
>                  three of these questions. Given the lack of legal
>                  counsel for most other complainants, it will be uphill
>                  work.
>
>                  In explaining why the government was unwilling to fund
>                  lawyers for student protesters, even though it is doing
>                  the same for government witnesses and members of the
>                  RCMP, Solicitor General Andy Scott noted, "RCMP members
>                  will be represented by government-provided counsel
>                  because these members may be subject to disciplinary
>                  measures as a result of the proceedings; complainants do
>                  not face similar potential consequences."
>
>                  This is true, as far as it goes. Individual complainants
>                  will not need to have their rights protected by counsel
>                  in the same way that individual officers will. So, if
>                  the only reason for holding these hearings is to
>                  determine whether individual officers used excessive
>                  force while arresting and detaining protesters, there
>                  will be little need for additional counsel.
>
>                  But if the public is ever to discover the real reasons
>                  that officers felt obliged to restrict the free speech
>                  rights of protesters, legal counsel will be needed to
>                  question RCMP and government witnesses.
>
>                  This is why it is unfortunate that the government failed
>                  to provide counsel for all complainants. It is also why
>                  the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, represented by our
>                  counsel from the B.C. Public Interest Advocacy Centre,
>                  will be working hard to question all witnesses during
>                  the six weeks of these hearings.
>
>                  Not only does it appear that some peaceful protesters
>                  had their signs forcibly removed, others allege that
>                  they were arrested simply for refusing to take down
>                  their paper and cloth signs prior to the outbreak of
>                  violence. Still others report that they were intimidated
>                  by the police into signing guarantees that they would
>                  give up their free-speech rights for the duration of the
>                  conference.
>
>                  The fact that these events may have taken place on a
>                  Canadian university campus makes it all the worse.
>                  Universities have long been recognized as centres of
>                  free speech.
>
>                  Even more importantly, free speech and freedom of
>                  peaceful assembly both lie at the heart of what it means
>                  to live in a democracy. Without them, citizens are no
>                  longer able to exercise their sovereignty over
>                  government.
>
>                  Yet last November we saw how easy it is for police to
>                  restrict these fundamental freedoms. And if we are ever
>                  to discover why, and to what degree, these restrictions
>                  were enforced, government and police witnesses will need
>                  to be expertly cross-examined, something individual
>                  complainants are not trained to do.
>
>                  When it was approached to fund counsel for protesters
>                  and for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the
>                  government was being asked, in effect, to provide
>                  funding which would be used to investigate its own role
>                  in this affair. Perhaps it is not surprising that it
>                  denied these requests. If Canadians' rights to free
>                  speech and peaceful assembly are to be anything more
>                  than mere platitudes, they have to be the kinds of
>                  rights which cannot be overridden at the whim of
>                  individual police officers or our political leaders.
>
>                  As George Orwell reminds us, "If liberty means anything
>                  at all, it means the right to tell people what they do
>                  not want to hear."
>
>                  During the APEC conference, the main object of protest
>                  was Indonesia's then-president Suharto. It is thus
>                  ironic that when student protests took place several
>                  months later in Indonesia -- a country not noted for its
>                  strong human rights record -- Suharto was forced to
>                  resign.
>
>                  When similar protests took place here in Vancouver last
>                  November, students were pepper-sprayed and arrested.
>
>                  Prime Minister Jean Chretien then publicly and
>                  condescendingly joked about the heavy-handedness of the
>                  police.
>
>                  As the current hearings unfold it will not only be
>                  crucial to discover which individual officers were
>                  responsible for which actions.
>
>                  We need to know that Canada's chief law enforcement
>                  agency is not arbitrarily restricting the most
>                  fundamental rights of Canadian citizens in order for
>                  politicians to ingratiate themselves with visiting
>                  dictators.
>
>                  If politicians influenced or attempted to influence
>                  police policy for political ends, they must be held
>                  accountable.
>
>                  Ministers have resigned, and governments have fallen,
>                  for less.
>
> _ _ _
> \   /    "Long words Bother me."
>  \ /           -- Winnie the Pooh
>
>

 _ _ _
 \   /    "Long words Bother me."
  \ /           -- Winnie the Pooh