Cheney gets hostile Canadian reception

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney needed police protection from Canadian protesters in Vancouver, where he was promoting his published memoirs.

Hundreds of protesters rallied around the Vancouver Club before Cheney arrived to speak about his book at a sold-out $500-a-plate dinner hosted by the Bon Mot (Good Word) Book Club, the QMI Agency reported.

The demonstrators carried placards calling Cheney a war criminal and chanted for police to arrest him. Instead, police physically moved protesters to keep a path clear for book club guests and Cheney. No arrests were reported.

Cheney served two terms under Republican President George W. Bush and has been an outspoken advocate of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also has repeatedly defended the controversial interrogation technique known as water-boarding, or near-drowning.

In an interview with the Globe and Mail, Cheney was dismissive of the protesters.

"I was a student at the University of Wisconsin in the 1960s -- those were real protests there," he said.

Tuesday, he was to travel to Calgary, Alberta, for the second and last Canadian stop promoting his book published last week, "In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir."