Evidence of meeting #5 for Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was know.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:35 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
I'm not aware that we transferred detainees at that point. We did not have a big military presence there. We did under ISAF, but I was not at all involved in the....
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
So if Canadians captured suspected Taliban, what did they do with them during your time?
4:35 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
I'm sorry, I don't know.
4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Okay.
You said you wrote three reports during your time. I understand your comments about the media, but you were quoted as saying that torture was commonplace. So if you don't know what happened, or if we didn't transfer anyone or have anyone to transfer, how do we know if there was any torture?
4:35 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
In the context of the human rights reports, I mentioned almost every year that it was common knowledge that torture was commonplace. This was reported in the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission reports and various UN reports by the UN expert, Sharif Basyouni. Louise Arbour mentioned it when she was in Afghanistan. It is reported in the press and in reports that you can look at online.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
So you're suggesting it wasn't necessarily exclusively for prisoners; in general, torture or the use of physical violence by Afghans was fairly common.
4:40 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
The use of physical violence was fairly common, according to people who spoke with me.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
4:40 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
They went to the human rights division of Foreign Affairs. That is who called for the report and gave the guidelines: what they wanted in them, what they wanted to see covered. And they went to the desk, as we called it, the bilateral desk, the geographic desk, and a series of other places that they were copied to.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Through you, Mr. Chairman, what feedback or comments did you get back from the desk with regard to those reports?
4:40 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
I didn't get comments back from the desk. I got one comment, actually, which was quite nice. Maybe I got two. I got one from a young fellow in the first year, who said, “Thank you so much. Now I understand Afghanistan.” And then maybe a little bit later I had one from our director general at that point, who thanked me for the completeness of the report and the detail and said they would make use of it.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Would you say you raised any concerns that you were trying to flag, or just general...?
4:40 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
It was general, and if you've seen the reports, you might say I was flagging some of the suggestions. I think they were called “ideas/suggestions” that we had to put at the end. Those were things that I thought were perhaps important.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
We're not allowed to see very much of anything, so I haven't seen it, myself.
4:40 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
I saw it online. I could give you the website. It's redacted, but there's not very much redacted.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
Ms. Olexiuk, I want to thank you very much.
What year did you join the foreign service?
4:40 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
Let me think. First I worked for CIDA, and then I was posted to Colombia, as a domestic person. I was put in charge of the aid program to Colombia and Ecuador, and during that time there was a competition for the foreign service, which they don't do very often, these sort of cross-level competitions. I was successful, so when I left Colombia in 1982 I accepted to join the foreign service. However, personal family reasons intervened and I didn't actually come to work until 1989.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
Okay, understood.
Have you been back to Afghanistan since you left in 2005?
4:40 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
No.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
Reading the reports and reading the history and the books about the period, it was a different time between 2002 and 2005. You seemed to have more freedom of movement, a greater ability to sort of get around on your own as an independent officer. Would that be a fair description?
4:40 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
Yes. It started tightening up after we got the embassy opened. The first year there were no restrictions, but it started to tighten up when the embassy opened and the ambassador arrived.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
And on the kind of information you were providing to the government and to the ambassador, to Mr. Alexander, you would presumably have discussed with him this broad security issue with respect to what was actually taking place. Did you actually visit jails or visit prisons and get a chance to see them yourself?
4:40 p.m.
Former Senior Policy Advisor, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, As an Individual
I did.
4:40 p.m.
Liberal