Police justify actions to quell demonstrations during APEC forum, admit to suppressing freedom of expression

(CCPJ/IFEX) – In a memo distributed during the first week of December 1997, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) justified its use of pepper spray on university students and other demonstrators on 25 November 1997, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Vancouver. The RCMP memo also justifies officers’ actions in removing demonstrators’ signs. […]

(CCPJ/IFEX) – In a memo distributed during the first week of
December 1997, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) justified
its use of pepper spray on university students and other
demonstrators on 25 November 1997, during the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Vancouver. The RCMP memo
also justifies officers’ actions in removing demonstrators’
signs. According to the memo, the signs were not removed because
of their content, but rather because the RCMP was concerned about
signs that could be broken and used as weapons.

However, the RCMP did acknowledge that it had made a mistake by
arresting some demonstrators and requiring them to promise not to
protest or attend any other demonstration before they were
released. “Although it was not intended that these arrested
persons be prevented from exercising their rights to freedom of
expression and association, the wording of this particular
condition nonetheless had that effect. It was a mistake which
will not be repeated,” the memo states.

The RCMP claimed that it had no choice but to spray the
demonstrators, since they were blocking a road that was about to
be used by some dignitaries. The officers had to clear the way,
the memo states.

Among the demonstrators harassed by police was Craig Jones, a
resident law student at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
Jones was arrested on 25 November at the University a couple of
hours before the anti-APEC demonstration that prompted the police
response using pepper spray. Jones was standing on his front lawn
holding a sign that said “Free Speech” beyond the boundary of the
security area laid out by police. After refusing to hand over the
sign to an RCMP inspector, Jones was reportedly wrestled to the
ground by three officers and taken away in handcuffs. He was
released without charge after fourteen hours.

At the time of Jones’s arrest, police reportedly confiscated
signs from other resident students. Their signs included two made
of cardboard, one made of a bedsheet, and one that was sheets of
paper laid out on the sidewalk and arranged to spell out the
words HUMAN RIGHTS.

In spite of the RCMP memo, controversy surrounds the actions by
police towards the demonstrators. The RCMP has been criticised
for not waiting several minutes before using the pepper spray. In
addition, it is alleged that officers sprayed several people as
they were leaving the protest. The RCMP has responded by
announcing an internal investigation of its handling of security
during the APEC meeting.

Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was widely criticised for
his apparently insensitive response to the use of pepper spray by
RCMP officers. When questioned by reporters over the incident,
Chretien said that he understood their protests. “I did that
myself, too, when I was a student. But now I’m not a student any
longer. We had to run the meeting properly,” he said. Asked if he
would also have been maced as a student, Chretien, taken aback,
said, “This technique did not exist in those days,” he said. “For
me, pepper, I put it on my plate.”

Recommended Action

Philip Murray

RCMP Commissioner

Ottawa, Ontario

Canada

Fax: +1 613 993 0260

Hon. Anne McLellan

Minister of Justice

House of Commons

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 0A6

Canada

Fax: +1 613 990 7255