Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Minister, for joining us today.
First let me join with you and all Canadians in recognizing the tremendous sacrifices and commitment that we have received from both the troops and the civilians acting on Canada's behalf in Afghanistan, and their sacrifice of life and limb, most recently highlighted by the weekend death of Corporal Darren Fitzpatrick. We all join in mourning all of their deaths.
The debate within this country about Afghanistan has to do with differing views about Canada's role internationally and about making sure that Canada's values and international obligations are upheld, so this debate is about important matters of state.
I won't engage in the debate about how long it took your government--you weren't the minister--to react to the concerns about torture in Afghan prisons, but I will say that recently our committee was told by a representative of Amnesty International that they still have concerns about prisoner transfers in Afghanistan. We have seen prisoner transfers stopped by our government in the fall of 2007 and twice in 2009. Despite your 200 visits that you talked about, not one of these reports has been made public or made available, even in confidence, to this committee.
As of June 2009, Britain stopped transferring detainees and doesn't engage in that.
I'm wondering, Mr. Minister, why these reports aren't public and why Canada hasn't followed the same path as Britain. Obviously they have concerns about their international obligations as well.