[asia-apec 694] Van Sun: RCMP spied on protesters

[David Webster]

Last Updated: Wednesday 23 September 1998     TOP STORIES
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      [GO]        RCMP spied on protesters before APEC
                  The Vancouver Sun
      [Image]
 [Image] [Image]  Jeff Lee Vancouver Sun
                  Police infiltrated the protest group APEC Alert before
 [Image] [Image]  the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit was held in
 [Image] [Image]  Vancouver last fall, according to internal RCMP
                  documents.
     [Image]
                  Not only did the RCMP keep higher-profile anti-APEC
     [Image]      activists under surveillance,

                  but at one point they had an informant join the group
                  and make regular reports to a pair of police handlers.

                  The surveillance culminated in a series of pre-planned
                  arrests of some activists "with a view to eliminating
                  some of the more high-profile members of APEC Alert"
                  from the University of B.C. site on the day world
                  leaders were to tour the university, police documents
                  indicate.

                  The information is contained in two internal reports.

                  One was prepared by an officer under investigation for
                  alleged assault following the pepper-spraying of
                  protesters who tore down a chain-link fence while
                  decrying the presence at the summit of some world
                  leaders with poor human rights records.

                  The other report is part of a criminal case against one
                  protester who allegedly assaulted an officer by yelling
                  at him through a megaphone.

                  Although the police, according to internal documents,
                  considered the anti-APEC protesters to be non-violent, a
                  special RCMP "threat assessment group" believed it was
                  necessary to assemble dossiers on them in the months
                  leading up to the summit, and they issued daily
                  bulletins, including books of mug shots of three
                  different groups to help officers identify potential
                  troublemakers.

                  "We learned there was an undercover operation taking
                  place which involved an RCMP undercover operator having
                  direct access to some of the APEC protesters identified
                  with the group APEC Alert," Sergeant Pete McLaren wrote
                  in a report to RCMP internal affairs. "I learned that
                  the RCMP handlers of the undercover operator were
                  Corporal Cal Krustie and Constable Stephanie Leach."

                  McLaren confirmed Tuesday that he wrote the 10-page
                  report and that he was aware of an undercover operation
                  against the anti-APEC protesters.

                  But he said he could not say more about the operation
                  because he was expected to testify before an RCMP Public
                  Complaints Commission hearing into the arrests and
                  pepper-spraying of some of the protesters during the
                  summit.

                  McLaren said he was one of two officers responsible for
                  maintaining a perimeter fence, and had learned that
                  protesters intended to rip the fence down. "I wanted to
                  find out as much information as I could," he said.

                  The report was part of a statement McLaren filed after
                  Crown counsel considered whether to charge officers
                  involved in two pepper-spraying melees with assault.
                  They ultimately decided not to lay charges.

                  McLaren did not identify the infiltrator in his report,
                  but APEC Alert member Jonathan Oppenheim said
                  information the group has indicates police had them
                  under surveillance for more than a year. The group also
                  believes their telephones were tapped, but have been
                  unable to confirm whether wire taps were applied, he
                  said.

                  "There are still indications that we're under
                  surveillance because we've been denied reports because
                  they [the RCMP] say it is part of a continuing
                  investigation. They had information that they couldn't
                  have gotten any other way than wire taps," Oppenheim
                  said.

                  "Frankly, I find it a bit frightening that the RCMP had
                  us under investigation, because we have always been a
                  non-violent, peaceful group," he said.

                  On occasion the surveillance bordered on the ridiculous.
                  The protesters finally figured they had an informant in
                  their midst during a Halloween "Corporate Tour" of UBC
                  buildings that were to be used for the summit. The group
                  of 20 costumed protesters were putting "hexes" on each
                  of the buildings when a cell phone went off in their
                  midst.

                  "We kind of figured we had an informant because none of
                  us have cell phones," he said. "The guy who was leading
                  us said 'Oops, we have an informant with us.' and we all
                  laughed."

                  The owner of the phone was a big, beefy man wearing an
                  alien mask, Oppenheim said.

                  The man quickly disappeared from the crowd.

                  The surveillance was part of an attempt to neutralize
                  potential summit troublemakers, including protesters
                  Jaggi Singh, Oppenheim and pot crusader David
                  Malmo-Levine. The police kept tabs on the whereabouts of
                  potential threats and, according to the other report,
                  deliberately set out to arrest at least one person as
                  close to the summit's start as possible as a way of
                  keeping him away from the university.

                  The document, called a "will say", was written for Staff
                  Sergeant Lloyd Plante of the University of B.C. RCMP
                  detachment as part of police explanations for why Singh
                  was arrested on Nov. 24 on a charge of assaulting an
                  officer by yelling at him through a megaphone.

                  Singh faxed out portions of the report in a press
                  release alleging that a Vancouver police department
                  strike force targeted the anti-APEC activists for months
                  before the summit.

                  "Plante will say that the report to Crown counsel
                  [against Singh] was forwarded with a view to eliminating
                  some of the more high-profile members of APEC Alert from
                  the UBC area," the report indicates.

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