Evidence of meeting #15 for Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was detainees.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:15 p.m.
First Secretary, Embassy of Canada to the United States of America
Some of those were passed on orally and some in written reporting.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
4:15 p.m.
First Secretary, Embassy of Canada to the United States of America
Yes--not usually such a big distribution list, usually more tightly focused.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
When did you first let it be known that you had concerns about him?
4:15 p.m.
First Secretary, Embassy of Canada to the United States of America
That's a good question. I don't have most of my reporting from the PRT, but I believe I wrote on it from the PRT, so that would have been probably June of 2006, certainly in the summer of 2006 and past.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
So he stayed around for a little while after you had raised your concerns about him.
4:15 p.m.
First Secretary, Embassy of Canada to the United States of America
Yes, he was there when I arrived in April 2006 and he was still there when I left in October of 2007.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
We know that Mr. Bernier had been present in the region when he was still the governor. We know there were concerns around him at that time, when Mr. Bernier in fact raised concerns.
Can you share with the committee any feedback that you received from your memos? I'm thinking of one that was titled “Kandh0029”. Did you receive any feedback on that memo, and specifically from the PCO?
4:20 p.m.
First Secretary, Embassy of Canada to the United States of America
I did get feedback on that one. It came from DFAIT. It doesn't mention PCO having been consulted, but there was CEFCOM and some other divisions in DND, and then three divisions in DFAIT.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
Just so people will know, generally speaking, what was in that memo?
4:20 p.m.
First Secretary, Embassy of Canada to the United States of America
That was 0029?
4:20 p.m.
First Secretary, Embassy of Canada to the United States of America
That was about the notification issues with the Red Cross, the delays, and the inadequate information. They were having a hard time finding our detainees. They were a little unhappy about that.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
So you had told them we had concerns about monitoring detainees, that this long period of time had elapsed, and you had let them know you were concerned about this, and they basically said....
4:20 p.m.
First Secretary, Embassy of Canada to the United States of America
This one they did reply to. They said, “Of course we respect the ICRC; they have an important function. There was just a mix-up: people were out of the country and didn't get the phone messages. We were a little surprised at the tone of the message, and we're going to fix it. Here's the contact information, the contact person for the Red Cross to get these problems solved.”
At the time I thought this would take care of the problem.
4:20 p.m.
First Secretary, Embassy of Canada to the United States of America
I think there were some ameliorations, but then when this issue flared up again almost ten months later, it seemed the delays were still substantial, two weeks and more.
4:20 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
Just to capsulize, you've said to us that you were aware of, and there had been wide reporting of, torture that had been going on. We're talking about sexual abuse, we're talking about the use of various instruments to torture prisoners after they were handed over, that we had exponentially more prisoners being handed over than the Dutch or the British, and that we had no way of tracking them that you were confident in.
Is that correct?
4:20 p.m.
NDP