[asia-apec 1266] CBC: Chretien aide denies APEC interference

[David Webster]

Chretien aide denies APEC interference
WebPosted Tue Aug 24 08:13:16 1999

VANCOUVER - A former top aide to Prime Minister Jean Chretien
 has denied he did anything to interfere in the security
arrangements during the controversial APEC summit in
Vancouver in 1997.

Jean Carle told the APEC inquiry that he suggested a fence on
the University of British Columbia campus be moved back, but
he denied he interfered in any serious way with the security
arrangements for the conference.

Yet commission counsel Marvin Storrow
proceeded to pull out memo after memo.
They all seemed to point to the prime
minister's desire to see demonstrators
kept away from leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation summit.

At one point, Storrow read from a police memo saying the PMO
had made it clear to APEC officials "do anything to ensure
the President of Indonesia attends the Vancouver meetings."

 At first, Carle said the memo only reflected Chretien's wish
that all leaders attend. Although Storrow pressed for more,
Carle said he couldn't give "a definition of anything."

 Not surprisingly, Carle's answers didn't satisfied protester
 Jonathan Oppenheim. "It's pretty clear that he's
contradicting a lot of people's testimony, and a lot of the
documents, and he can't explain a lot of the documents. So it
seems pretty clear that he's covering for the prime minister
to a very large extent," he said.

Carle was the prime minister's operations director during the
conference. He was also the liaison with agencies such as the
RCMP.

 Carle testified on Monday he was not concerned about the
protesters or their signs. But he said there were concerns
that the noise from the demonstrations would distract the
 leaders during their meetings.

The inquiry is looking into RCMP actions during the APEC
summit, which included pepper spraying some of the
protesters.

Carle is expected to testify for at least one more day. The
student protesters say his testimony is crucial to forcing
the prime minister into the witness box before the inquiry
ends.

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