[asia-apec 1177] APEC Hearings Update 1/2

[Jaggi Singh]

[1/2]

Vancouver APEC Hearings Update (#2)
June 30, 1999

[A previous APEC update was prepared three months ago on March 27, 1999.
If you want a copy, just e-mail <jaggi at tao.ca>.]

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This update includes the following sections:

1) The APEC ALERT raft theory [1/2]
2) Jean Carle's "15 minute warning" [1/2]
3) "Embarrassment from the Canadian definition" [2/2]
4) Chretien's cancelled tour and shredded documents [2/2]
5) An ambassador's view [2/2]
6) Sensitive matters [2/2]
7) Anarchists, socialists and "left-wingers" [2/2]
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The "civilian" stage of the interminable APEC Hearings has ended, after
hearing testimony from almost 40 witnesses over three months.

The hearings will resume at the end of July with procedural motions on the
calling of further civilians. The next batch of scheduled witnesses
include senior administration officials from UBC, and then an assortment
of federal government and senior RCMP officials and bureaucrats, including
Jean Carle and Jean Pelletier from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).

Jean Chretien has still yet to be added to the witness list. Meanwhile
Eddie Goldenberg, his chief aide, has been interviewed by Commission
Counsel and they've decided not to call him. Chretien might be Canada's
Prime Minister, but Goldenberg is widely acknowledged to be the most
powerful person in Ottawa, and a key figure in understanding what the PMO
did or didn't do during APEC in Vancouver.

Here are some highlights from the last three months of testimony, as well
as a preview of upcoming evidence:


1) The APEC ALERT raft theory

Of the dozens of people arrested at the APEC Summit, not one person was
ever brought to trial. Actually, with one exception, no one was ever
charged with an offense. Of course, that hasn't prevented the RCMP and
their high-priced lawyers from presenting all kinds of tenuous theories to
try to justify their actions, or just plain discredit protesters.

Probably the most far-fetched theory to date is the "APEC ALERT raft
theory" which was introduced by Staff-Sergeant Stewart's personal lawyer,
Jim Williams, during his cross-examination of Annette Muttray (June 16).

Annette, a foreign grad student at UBC, was arrested for holding a
walkie-talkie on November 25, 1997. Because of her visa status, Annette
specifically wanted to avoid arrest, and was simply helping out protest
organizers by using a walkie-talkie to report on an East Timor Alert
Network demonstration. Nonetheless, as part of the RCMP's transparent
tactic of eliminating the protesters' communications network, individuals
with walkie-talkies and megaphones were targeted for arrest.

For Annette's efforts, she was arrested, handcuffed, strip-searched and
jailed, only to be released without charge later in the evening. Her
arrest is among the most insidious of the dozens the RCMP undertook that
day. That doesn't mean they don't have their excuses

While questioning Annette at the Commission on June 16, an RCMP lawyer
openly asked if she had a notebook in her possession during APEC with
"codes for different locations on campus" and "plans to storm the beach by
way of a rubber raft in order to gain access to the Museum of
Anthropology."

Another police officer, from the VPD, has told Commission Counsel that he
saw a notebook with "what he thinks were codes, a list of locations, and a
reference to arriving on the beach at the Museum of Anthropology in a
rubber raft." The same officer, Constable Wrathall, says he gave the
notebook to an RCMP officer who worked with Staff-Sergeant Stewart.

Conveniently, Wrathall can't identify the officer to whom he gave the
incriminating book. Even more conveniently, the RCMP have not been able to
produce the notebook! That's not surprising, since no such notebook
exists, as Annette emphatically testified. The lawyers for the Forces of
Light, who've called the allegations "ludicrous", have more-or-less dared
the RCMP to produce the non-existent book.

Now, just because APEC ALERT never considered making a Normandy-style
beach landing, that doesn't mean the raft theory wasn't a good idea. I
wish I thought of it.

Imagine ...  an affinity group of about half-a-dozen APEC ALERTers,
carefully hidden away in the deep forest of Stanley Park on the eve of the
Summit, surreptitiously finalizing their plans. At dawn, they launch their
rubber raft - the "HMS Freedom", or something similarly nave and earnest -
and set off with determination across the cold waters of the Burrard
Inlet.

Carefully avoiding the scrutiny of scary US Navy frogmen, Canadian coast
guard boats and probing helicopters, the rafters make a secret landing on
Wreck Beach, the infamous nude beach colony on the UBC campus. After
planting a black flag, the activists tiptoe around the sleeping diehard
hippie nudists, and commence to scale the steep cliff towards the Museum.

Miraculously avoiding plunging to their deaths off the near vertical
cliff, the protesters elude the security agents of more than a dozen
countries by hiding behind totem poles, and proceed to enter the Museum
through a back door.

The sweaty anarchist rafters rudely interrupt a pompous speech by the
Prime Minister of Thailand on tariff policy, and promptly proceed to put
all the leaders under summary arrest. Chretien resists, but is eventually
subdued with a moderate dose of diluted pepper-spray.

Now that would have been much more interesting than allegedly tearing down
some stupid security fence attached with twist ties - the proverbial thin
line between civilization and anarchy.

As it stands, there was no raft, no secret codes and no notebook. That
doesn't mean the RCMP can't lie about it.


2) Jean Carle's 15-minute warning

The Commission has recently produced a "will says" of their interview with
Jean Carle, Prime Minister Jean Chretien's Director of Operations during
APEC. [A "will says" is a document produced by Commission Counsel after an
interview with a given witness, and summarizes what the witness "will say"
at the Commission.]

Jean Carle, according to the will says, admits that on November 25 he was
personally present at Gate 3 during APEC ALERT's blockades of all the main
exits from UBC. He was also present when Staff-Sergeant Stewart and other
senior officers were discussing how to handle the situation. He claims
that "he was not involved in those discussions."

However, Carle does admit that he "told the RCMP officers to give him a
cue as to when they could leave." Moreover, he was supposed to give the
RCMP "a 15 minute warning before the time for departure."

Carle's warning, coming directly from the Prime Minister's Director of
Operations, might help explain Staff-Sergeant Stewart's brutal actions at
the Gate 6 blockade. Captured on television footage that has now become
infamous across Canada, Stewart gave demonstrators a 9-second warning
before letting loose with Liberal doses of pepper spray.

Within minutes, the leaders' motorcades sped by while some arrested
protesters, handcuffed in the back of police van and drenched in pepper
spray, were screaming in pain for first aid. They had to wait over up to
30 minutes until all the motorcades went by to receive treatment.

Why the rush? Couldn't Carle, Chretien and the APEC Leaders have waited
for a few more minutes so that protesters who continued to blockade Gate 6
could be arrested and dragged away in a somewhat civil manner instead of
blasted with chemical mace? Here is Carle's explanation:

"While Mr. Carle could have advised the Prime Minister to delay, there
were problems associated with this. For example, President Clinton had
another commitment and had to get to the airport. Other leaders may have
had similar problems."

So, the key to Peppergate?: Clinton had a flight to catch.

[End of 1/2. Continued ...]