For a Short Time, Canada’s Premier a Criminal Suspect
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TORONTO — Prime Minister Jean Chretien was charged with assault Monday for manhandling a protester in February, but Quebec’s justice minister swiftly quashed the charge.
For a brief interval during the afternoon, Canada had a serving prime minister facing a criminal charge for the first time this century. But Quebec Justice Minister Paul Begin announced at a news conference that he would not let the case proceed.
Earlier in the day, a criminal court judge in Hull, Quebec, ordered Chretien to answer the charge on June 6.
Judge Pierre Chevalier made the ruling after a 45-minute closed-door hearing on a complaint initiated by a New Brunswick man under an obscure section of Canada’s criminal code.
The section allows a person who is not a victim of a crime to ask the court to bring a charge.
Kenneth Russell, an unemployed man from Moncton, New Brunswick, brought the charge against Chretien for grabbing demonstrator Bill Clennett by the throat during a Flag Day ceremony in Hull on Feb. 15.
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