The Shawinigan Handshake is the nickname of a chokehold executed by Jean Chrétien, who was Prime Minister of Canada at the time, on protester Bill Clennett after Clennett broke through the RCMP barricade during a protest on February 15, 1996 at the first National Flag of Canada Day ceremony.
The name comes from Chrétien's town of birth Shawinigan. Chrétien later joked that he used the Shawinigan Handshake on Clennett because he mistook Clennett for John Nunziata, who Chrétien expelled from the Liberal caucus for voting against the 1996 budget.
