Peter MacKay on Afghanistan

Peter MacKay Minister of National Defence

Mr. Speaker, let me read a few quotations. This is from David Mulroney, a senior public servant in charge of the Afghan mission. He said:

We never, ever transferred anyone if we thought there was a substantial risk of torture. We knew there were problems in the Afghan system, but we developed a robust monitoring system.

That is the failed system that we inherited from the previous government.

Lieutenant-General Michel Gauthier, the former commander of the expeditionary force in Afghanistan, said:

It's why none of us would knowingly have ignored, disregarded, suppressed, covered up, or put a cloak of secrecy over anything that we received from the field, especially on something as important as the detainee issue. I say that as dispassionately as I can. I mean it absolutely sincerely.

What he was concerned about was being labelled a war criminal by the member opposite.