Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I too want to welcome our witnesses. I will share my time with my colleague, Francine Lalonde.
First of all, I want to clarify something. The basic objective of this committee really is to try and protect our military since we might be actioned on the basis of the Geneva Convention. This is especially a responsibility for the people around this table and in the Canadian Parliament. We know that our military is under the authority of the civilian branch. What I mean is that even if members of the military were to be blamed, our civilian authorities would be painted with the same brush since they are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the conduct of our Forces.
Everyone here recognizes that the suspected torture we are dealing with has certainly not being inflicted by Canadian soldiers. What we are trying to find out is if Canadian soldiers like you, on the ground, knew that torture was being practiced and if, despite that, they still transferred detainees. That is our main concern.
I do not want to challenge your statements but I also know that there is a strong esprit de corps in the Canadian Forces. The military is an organization where it would be extremely rare that experienced leaders like you would contradict each other. As far as I am concerned, that is not conceivable. I congratulate you for the consistency of your statements, since no one contradicted the others, which is good.
That being said, we also have other information sources. Can you explain to me how you can state that absolutely nothing happened when Amnesty International, the Independent Afghanistan Human Rights Commission and the Red Cross all stated that torture was being practiced in the prisons? Even a guard in the Sarposa prison stated that torturing prisoners it was routine. International diplomats said the same thing. Today, a Canadian diplomat repeated statements made by Mr. Colvin as well as by many reporters. You referred to the Globe and Mail but I can also mention Mrs. Ouimet of La Presse who reported on what she saw there. All the Opposition parties believe that torture was being practiced. Why are you trying to convince us that it was not?
Mr. Gauthier, I want to ask you something because you have read the reports. You are lucky. We would like to see those reports. Did I understand correctly that you are recommending that the government provide us with the reports because that would be very helpful to us? Can you now convince members of the committee and members of the public that there was no torture, when all the organizations I just mentioned stated that there was?