More than 40 complainants claim there's a link between the Prime Minister's Office and the violence used last November.
During Monday's opening session, one lawyer likened last year's APEC crackdown to "a form of martial law."
A government lawyer said APEC security was "simply the way major international events are run." He denounced leaks to the media in the weeks before the inquiry, and said it would be important to put the leaked documents into context.
No witnesses testified Monday.
The three-member panel is considering demands that Prime Minister Jean Chretien and other federal government officials testify. It will also decide if the RCMP action was appropriate, and if it conformed with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Dozens of demonstrators were arrested, manhandled and pepper-sprayed by police on the final day of the APEC meeting on the grounds of the University of British Columbia.
RCMP documents identify the prime minister and his office as being involved in the security arrangements.
The students believe the motive was to ensure then-President Suharto of Indonesia would not be embarrassed by the protests. Those suspicions appear to be backed up by a number of memos written at the time.
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