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APEC Inquiry

In November 1997, the leaders of the eighteen Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (“APEC”)
economies met in Vancouver. On November 25, 1997, those individuals convened on the campus of the University of British Columbia (“UBC”). Security for their meeting was provided, in part, by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (“RCMP”). In addition to the legitimate performance of their security function, some members of the RCMP engaged in actions that were not legitimate and in some cases not lawful. Those actions included assaults, threats of assault, arrests without warrant or Criminal Code authority, arrests for improper purposes, unlawful confiscation of property, unjustified surveillance, unlawful confinement, confinement without adequate food or warmth, verbal abuse, defamation, and deceit. Those actions deprived members of the public of rights guaranteed to them under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the “Charter”), including their right to freedom of expression pursuant to s. 2(b), their right to liberty under s. 7, and their right to freedom of peaceful assembly under s. 2(c). Those Charter violations were, in part, attributable to the intervention by central agencies of the Government of Canada – particularly the Prime Minister’s Office (“PMO”) – in the planning and operations of the RCMP.

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