I wish I could pursue it further because the question is not about our Canadian soldiers engaging or even being directly observant of torture and abuse in any way. It's a question of whether they are finding themselves placed by this government in a position of being complicit in handing over prisoners where we cannot be assured abuse and torture are not taking place.
But I'd like to turn to the minister, because I know my time is short, and with all due respect, to the man who should no longer be minister of this department, in my view.
Mr. O'Connor, I think there is very widespread reasoning for feeling that you have failed, starting right back with failing to read your briefing notes, which you admitted before this committee. You've failed to follow procurement rules. You've failed to fix flawed detainee transfer agreements, even though the NDP began hammering on this issue literally in the first week of the sitting of Parliament and brought this to light after your government was elected.
Again today I think you've really failed to acknowledge the horrors of the increasing civilian deaths and the numbers of displaced persons. And certainly in referring to the Afghanistan combat, you have failed to accurately reflect the many, many serious problems that have been cited in the evaluation that has taken place.
I'm just going to briefly refer to the report coming out from the recent review that took place in January, and this is with respect to Kandahar:
...the spiralling violence has exacerbated tendencies among the government and its international backers to favour short-sighted, quick fixes such as auxiliary police, which risk being little more than poorly trained militias, and to work around, not through, the new democratic institutions.
Why should you not resign, and why will you not resign, given all this evidence of failure?