Chrétien was involved in a controversy again in November 1997 , when the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit was held on the University of British Columbia campus in Vancouver . The APEC summit was a meeting of many Asian and Pacific countries , and students on UBC 's campus protested the meeting of some of these leaders because of their poor human rights practices . One of the leaders most criticized was then Indonesian President Suharto for killing at least 500,000 people when he came to power in a coup on September 30 , 1965 and for waging a near-genocidal campaign in East Timor . Demonstrators tore down a barrier and were pepper-sprayed by the RCMP . Other peaceful demonstrators were subsequently pepper-sprayed as well . There was debate over whether the action was necessary . It was alleged that the initiative for the RCMP assault on the demonstrators was because of complaints from the President Suharto of Indonesia and President Jiang Zemin of China to the Canadian government about the demonstrators . The Indonesian and Chinese leaders both came from countries where demonstrators were routinely shot down by the government , and both found the demonstrators in Canada to be deeply upsetting , which led to pressure especially from Suharto on the Canadian government to silence the demonstrators . Suharto had made clear that his coming to Canada was dependent upon his " dignity " not being insulted by any demonstrators . In response to Suharto 's concerns about his " dignity " being called into question by protests , he had been promised by the Canadian government that no protesters would be allowed to get close and in early August 1997 the RCMP was informed by the PMO that the Prime Minister did not wish for any " distractions " at the up-coming conference . During the protests , a First Nations leader claimed to have overheard Chrétien giving orders to the RCMP to remove the signs protesting against the human rights violations in China and Indonesia at once before Suharto or Jiang had a chance to see them
APEC summit
APEC Canada 1997
Jean Chrétien