APEC debacle a cash cow for lawyers
WebPosted Tuesday, March 2, 01:15:16, 1999

VANCOUVER - In Vancouver, the new APEC Inquiry has yet to hear its first
witness -- but already it has paid more than a half-million dollars to lawyers.

Several of the lawyers are being paid well above
the maximum government rate of $200 an hour.

The inquiry has retained 20 lawyers so far -- in addition to the lawyers
defending Prime Minister Jean Chretien and the RCMP.

In contrast, the students who complained that their rights were violated
have been limited to three lawyers -- paid at standard, government rates.

Opposition MPs say the federal government is spending too much
money on itself -- and not enough on the people who claim
their right to free speech was violated.

"I think it's probably excessive, particularly at a time when the
government was refusing to fund the complainants, the applicants, the
students," said Jim Abbott, a Reform MP from British Columbia.

Last month, the Chretien government decided it would fund the students,
but they all have to engage the same legal team, which is restricted to
three lawyers at government rates.

Abbott says the legal bills for the APEC inquiry are going to be
unneccessarily expensive.

"Quite frankly, the sky is the limit," he told CBC News.
"If the prime minister were simply to agree to appear at
the public complaints commission, it would shave half a million or
a million dollars off whatever the costs are."

The Chretien government hasn't revealed the cost for its own lawyers to
defend the PMO. But it insist that outside lawyers who are defending
RCMP officers get only the government rate.

In total, the RCMP Public Complaints Commission has spent $1.3 million
dollars so far to look into the 1997 APEC pepper-spray incident.
The biggest expense is legal bills.