Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Minister, the Judge Advocate General correctly summarized international law and domestic law with respect to the prohibition on torture, which is the reason that the Geneva Convention, as a principle and corollary, prohibits the transfer of detainees into situations of torture and inhumane treatment, and that was also the basis of the agreement that was signed by General Hillier on behalf of the Canadian government on December 18, 2005, with respect to the observance of the Geneva Convention.
The problem, however, is compliance with that agreement, and what we have been witnessing is a preponderance of evidence, not just allegations, from such diverse sources as the United Nations, the U.S. State Department, human rights organizations--I can go on--of such torture and inhumane treatment. Indeed, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, in the person no less of Abdul Quadar Noorzai, who is the regional manager in Kandahar for the commission, not only corroborated some of these reports but has said very recently that abuse and torture—these are his words, not mine—is an ongoing problem in Afghan prisons, that one in three persons transferred by Canadians were beaten in local--