Canadian Defense Chief Resigns
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OTTAWA — Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien abruptly forced the resignation Friday of his beleaguered defense minister, David M. Collenette, ostensibly for having inappropriately interfered with an immigration case.
Chretien said he was extremely sorry to accept the resignation of his longtime friend and political ally but added: “I told him that I hope soon I’ll be in a position to take him back into my Cabinet.”
The two main opposition parties, the Bloc Quebecois and the Reform Party, suggested that Chretien and his Liberal Party of Canada were just trying to temporarily deflect criticism of a minister who has been in hot water over what has become known as the Somalia Affair.
The opposition has criticized Collenette in connection with a long-running investigation of abuses by Canadian peacekeepers in Somalia in 1993, including the torture-slaying of a Somali teenager.
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