Thank you, Chair.
Let me get back to this idea that we've had users of the access to information system cite a chill, that they sense a noticeable chill in terms of accessing information. That's of primary concern to this committee. We're all about freedom of information and knocking down the barriers to freedom of information.
In 2002, the following language was not censored from the annual reports on Afghanistan: “Arbitrary detention, beatings and the use of torture to extract confessions of guilt continue to be wide spread.” That was not redacted or censored.
In 2003, this was not censored: If you don't give up your house...“don't insist other wise you will be jailed and tortured”. This is from the AIHRC report, your report of 2003 that came to your office.
In 2004, this language was not censored or redacted:
The monitoring reports of AIHRC state that torture continues to take place as a routine part of...procedure, particularly at the investigation stage.... [In one example is a man named] Qajkol, arrested...following the abduction of three UN workers.... [He] died while in...custody. AIHRC investigated and concluded that Qajkol died as a result of...torture, [even though his death was] cited as “death due to natural causes”. [His] five year old son...[when interviewed] following Qajkol's death in custody said, “Somebody had taken out my father's finger nails”.
That was in 2004, in the annual reports that your office gets, and it was not censored at all.
But the 2005 report, which came to your office on January 31, 2006, after the federal election.... This is from an access to information request from your office. You've given me the dates that you received these reports, so you received your 2005 report on January 31, 2006. Now, in that report—I have it right here—all references to torture are censored. I know they're censored because they're only greyed out; they're not blacked out. That's the document everybody is saying shouldn't exist. It does exist. It's in the public domain.
In the 2006 report, which was received in your office January 17, 2007, all references to torture are censored and blacked out.
Jump forward to March 22, 2007. You're telling people that no such reports even exist. Is that not a prima facie case of a chill or a demonstrable difference in the administration of access to information from DFAIT from the previous Liberal administration to the current Conservative administration?
Do you see the point I'm making here?