Allan Thompson, Vancouver – A government lawyer has denied that Canada offered favours to an Indonesian dictator or that demonstrators were dealt with improperly at last year's Asia-Pacific summit.
Ivan Whitehall was speaking yesterday during the first day of hearings by the RCMP Public Complaints Commission into the treatment of protesters at last November's summit. Papers leaked
Documents apparently supporting the theory that Prime Minister Jean Chritien offered former Indonesian president Suharto favours have been leaked out of context, Whitehall said. The RCMP attempted to ensure that the summit would take place and that security arrangements were appropriate, he said.
"In other words, what this was all about was ensuring that the demonstrations take place on one side of the street, but not the other side of the street and it had absolutely nothing to do with Indonesia or any other particular country. "It was simply the way major international events are run," he said.
The meeting of 18 Pacific Rim leaders was marred by clashes between protesters and RCMP when the group met at the University of British Columbia, west of downtown Vancouver. More than 40 people have filed complaints with the commission about police treatment. The Prime Minister could be called to testify because of allegations he promised Suharto he wouldn't be confronted by demonstrators in Vancouver and that he ordered the RCMP to stifle protest.
A paper trail of documents apparently links Chritien to the pledge to Suharto that he wouldn't face embarrassment, and also ties the Prime Minister's office to RCMP action in cracking down on protesters and tearing down signs. Dozens of student activists who were pepper-sprayed, arrested, strip-searched and detained without charge contend that their constitutional rights to free speech and expression were infringed because Chritien wanted to shield a dictator from embarrassment.
On the first day of proceedings, Gerald Morin, head of the three-member panel, made it clear the commission will go as far up the ladder as it takes to get to the truth. "We must necessarily hear evidence as to not only what took place, but also why. Hence, we will go where the evidence from witnesses leads us," Morin said. "These are grave matters which strike at the heart of us, at who we are as Canadians," Morin said. In the hearing room, students representing themselves were seated at the back, while three tables full of lawyers representing the government and RCMP occupied the front. In all, there were some two dozen lawyers in the hearing room. The inquiry didn't hear from any witnesses yesterday because it was almost immediately bogged down in procedural wrangling. Funding issue
It heard arguments over its right to probe the Prime Minister's conduct, legal standing for various parties, funding for student protesters to pay lawyers and the disclosure of documents.
Commission counsel Chris Considine said he intends to call as many as 130 witnesses. Proceedings could take six months. Considine made it clear he will probe allegations the Canadian government gave assurances to Suharto that he wouldn't be embarrassed by demonstrators in Canada.
Cameron Ward, a lawyer for some student protesters, asked the commission to declare clearly that it has the jurisdiction to investigate the conduct of Chritien and his staff and to make recommendations on potential political interference with the RCMP. "If it is proved in some form that the Prime Minister told the RCMP to act in a way which violated my clients' constitutional rights... then we have to question whether this society has taken a step toward becoming a police state, like say, Indonesia under general Suharto," Ward said.
On the funding issue, Morin agreed with lawyer Joseph Arvay, who represents student Craig Jones, that the commission should urge the government to pay for lawyers for the student protesters. "The only reason the government would say no is if they don't want you to get to the truth," Arvay said.