THOSE who watched
the television news
footage of the so-called
“Battle in Seattle” or

grunge versus greed,
must surely have been
wondering, what all the
fuss was about with the
relatively tame proceed-

. ings at the November
1997 APEC demon-
strations.

Frankly, it’s mystified most
people how the country
could become embroiled in
the APEC hangover fallow-
ing the pepper-spraying of a
» few activists engaged in the
sort of civil disobedience ©
-_ designed ‘to elicit a Fesponse
from police. .

«They asked for-ir and they
hat should h:

"But no here in the land
the terminally bewildered.
The KCMP in ‘the APEC

nd a hard place. Th federal
overnment wanted to use
fancouver 6d hast the APEC -
conference and the task of |
‘providing security for the |
-world icaders arending the
conference eli-to our ation:

ers.

They trindied out copies
of police sotebooks as evi-
dence of the direct invalve-
ment of the the prime minis-
ter with entries like “PM
wants the tenters out” and
“PM wanted everyone
removed.”

Somchow nobody could
figure out that the initials
“PM” don’t stand for prime
minister, but for Staff

”. Sergeant Peter Montague,

who was responsible for the
Indonesian delegation’s secu-
rity, But, hey, what’s a few
million dollars of taxpayer’s
moncy for if not to waste?
Weil, at Jeast the hearings
have provided some hilarity

. for our money. There was

tornier Solicitor General

, Andy Scote doing the St.
“Vitus Dance trying to explain
>. his locse lips on a Aight. Tom
= Ottawa with a pal. :

Not to meiition first
inquiry head, Gerald Morin,

- hiting a private investigator

to try to get some dirt on a

‘|, Mountie who blew the whis-

lowing legitimate 5

‘duty. tothe govern-.
tryin to satisfy :

ot a

-tle.on Morin’s own verbal

indiscretions at a gaming —
fable.

have done if the Mounties
liad cracked down on the...
rotesters in the, manner the
* cattle Police Depaitmens
i
‘What bugs me about all |
this 'is the credibility profes: .

~ sional protesters like Garth

Mullins. and Jonathan.

Oppenti
and given

. speech tl

“stopped them.
. what the heck did they

the public stage he covets so
dearly to spout his foolish-
ness. When the weekend was
over, there was Mullins
proudly waving the front
page of a Seattle paper and
trumpeting that the protest-
ers had struck a blow for
society and shut down the
talks.

Unless I miss my guess,
the talks did go on after
being delayed a day due to
the rioting and footing. Thar
the delegates to the WFO
couldn't reach agreement has
a whole fot more to do with
global politics than the
actions of people like Mullins.

Whatever one may think
of the WTO and its attempts
to negotiate rules for open
global trade, the actions of
the professional protesters,
anarchists and agitators who
hijacked attention away from
the real issues of the talks,
one cannot condone the law-
lessness we witnessed.

Legitimate protest is nec-
essary in our society. Just as
necessary as the freedom of

hat allows it. But
when people like Mullins talk
about civil disobedience as a
method of protest they have
to realize that means break-
ing the law. If they or anyone

else breaks the law, they must
-also understand they will face

the consequences for thav.

That's the whole problem

with all of this. ;
At APEC the civil disobe-

dience amounted to an

attempt to breach the pofice

lines. The consequence was 2. :

face full of pepper spray and

in some cases, arrest. ;
At the “Riot at the °.

"Hyatt," again, the civil dis- |
“ obedience was an attempt to

breach the police lines to get
into the hotel where the
prime minister was giving a
speech. They were met with a
squad of tactical police who °°
cll, gee,

“The same bing happened -
when form "News columnist ras

Doug Collins was speaking at
the Vancouver library. They
believe in free speech when
its to their advantage and as
long as the speech is in agree-
ment with their own opin-
ions.

Seatie was no different.
Protesters turned up in the
thousands for a veritable cor-
nucopia of causes. Fair
enough. All was weil until the
agitators and anarchists
decided they might as well
strike a blow for the anti-cap-
italism cause and smash store
windows in a rampage of vio-
lence and looting.

Unlucky for them, Scatde
isn’t tn Canada. The Seattle
police are not hampered by
the hand-wringing socialists.

Instead of surrendering
control of the city co the
rent-a-cause lunatics, they
tought back. Were they vio-
lent? Absolutely. But that’s
the consequence for causing
several million dollars worth
of damage to a socicty they
want to destroy.

The protesters have a right
to speak out on any issuc.
They do not have the right to
break the law in the process.
The police have the right —
and the duty — to enforce
the law. Ultimately, that’s the:
lesson the APEC inquiry
needs to understand.

Hinighdiece .

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