Man With Knife Breaks Into Pm’s House

Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s wife Aline on Sunday came face-to-face with an intruder who was standing at the couple’s bedroom door with an open jackknife.

Chretien said he and his wife locked themselves in their room until the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrived minutes later and arrested the man. No one was injured.

Chretien told reporters his wife woke up about 2:45 a.m. when she heard a noise. Police said the man broke into the prime minister’s official residence by smashing a window with a rock.

“She got up and she saw a person in front of her, and she closed back the door very rapidly, came back to the room and locked the other door,” Chretien said at the airport before leaving to attend Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral in Israel.

Chretien said the sound of the door closing awakened him.

“She called the police right away and I could not believe what she was telling me. … And in six or ten minutes, I don’t know, the RCMP came on the second floor and arrested a man who had a jackknife, open, right at the door of our room,” he said.

“I would like to say that my wife did not panic,” Chretien said. “And I think that I’m lucky that she was there. And I’m grateful. “

Police said the suspect is a 34-year-old convenience store worker, whose family says he has a history of psychiatric problems.