GOV.-GEN HECKLED AS SHE AND HUSBAND TOUR HASTINGS STREET

It was no way to treat a lady.

Gov.-Gen. Adrienne Clarkson got a look yesterday at the poorest
neighbourhood in her dominion.

Clarkson and author-husband John Ralston Saul traded in their
vice-regal silverware for the greasy-spoon treatment. The couple were
met with protests and heckles as they walked the mean streets, but
appeared unfazed.

Her Excellency wore a lavender fleece jacket, grey corduroy pants and
walking shoes for her tour along rugged Hastings Street. She visited
the city's safe-injection facility and then had breakfast with
Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell at a hotel on the nicer side of Victory
Square. Clarkson also visited a bottle recycling depot and a dental
clinic before meeting community groups at Woodward's.

"We know the difference between this and Da Vinci's Inquest, OK,"
mused Clarkson, ringed by dozens of security men, media and protesters.

Her steel came out against any suggestion she was a Marie
Antoinette.

"I don't respond to it at all," she said. "I've been coming down to
these kinds of areas in every part of Canada.

"This is what we do, and this is what the governor-general should be
doing. Being with people, no matter who they are, no matter what they
do and living and witnessing what their lives are.

"It's very, very interesting to me to be able o come to Vancouver . .
. and see what's happening for the marginalized here, and what they're
doing for themselves."

Clarkson bore the pressure gracefully, and supported the protesters'
right to vent. But by midday, she was tiring of it all.

"We would like to go places that don't become a circus," she
said.

Mayor Campbell said he wasn't surprised at the protests, mostly aimed
at him and the COPE council.

"I would be worried if there were no protests," he said. "And those
are my supporters."

Campbell said Clarkson should know what's going on. "I didn't gloss it
over for her," he said.

Campbell said city crews hosed down the street before Clarkson's
visit. "When I was brought up, when people came to visit my house, I
had to clean the house," he said.

David Cunningham of the Anti-Poverty Committee said Clarkson got a
sanitized view. "We don't go to art galleries and dental clinics. We
go to soup kitchens," he said.

As she walked along Hastings, Clarkson stooped to speak to a man in a
sleeping bag. As soon as she had gone, he went back to sleep.