I’ve been keeping an eye on what has been happening recently with the Canadian Armed Forces and their handling of the detainee situation. The prognosis has been rather bleak. We are most likely responsible for people being abused and tortured while under our aegis. The Harper government has been doing backflips as of late to keep a lid on the story. Intransigentia has forwarded this article to my attention.
“The Harper government has effectively suspended parliamentary hearings on allegations that Afghan detainees were transferred to torture – boycotting attempts by opposition MPs to continue a Commons probe of the matter.”
Why are the Conservatives engaged in what seems to be a full on exercise in damage control if in fact, there is no substance to the allegations raised by Richard Colvin?
The Conservatives are blocking parliamentary inquiries saying insipid tidbits like this:
“It’s not the time to be having meetings that are implying, intentioned or not, that Canadians are somehow guilty of war crimes,” Laurie Hawn, the parliamentary secretary for the Defence Minister, said on CTV’s Power Play after the aborted meeting.
Well Mr.Hawn when exactly is the time to investigate possible war crimes perpetrated by our forces? The optics do not improve by stalling and delaying the House of Commons about the issue.
What is happening is that the Conservatives know they have a situation that will bring down their government. Delaying parliament is only the first step in the three ring circus that is forming around this issue. I guarantee this is only going to get worse.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
2 comments
December 19, 2009 at 9:40 am
LesterBee
There’s no question that Canada went into its mission in Kandahar with a flawed detainee agreement. That’s now been fixed, and the difficult work of helping to build up Afghan institutions now includes working on the prisons that hold our detainees. We should expect this issue to be taken seriously by our decision-makers, and that is certainly happening now, even if it took a while to get there.
And let’s not forget that the original agreement called for Canada to transfer detainees to the same Afghan system they would have ended up in if we weren’t there. I still fail to see why that’s so awful.
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December 20, 2009 at 8:46 am
The Arbourist
Fixed? I think that right now we are a long way from being ‘fixed’. If Canadian people are responsible for torture and abuse, they must be brought to justice. Peter Mackay wrapping himself in the Flag and slinging mud at Richard Colvin is doing nothing to further this end.
And let’s not forget that the original agreement called for Canada to transfer detainees to the same Afghan system they would have ended up in if we weren’t there. I still fail to see why that’s so awful.
If we are not there to improve conditions then why are we in Afghanistan? Stating that they would have been tortured anyways does not excuse the Canadian Armed Forces from violating the Geneva Conventions and acting contrary to international law.
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