Mr. Speaker, the minister of defence has now given a third version of the facts. On January 30 he said, and I quote:
--I was first informed about the detention of prisoners...within 24 hours of when it actually occurred.
In committee yesterday he said he did not know for another four days that Canadians had taken prisoners.
In his oral briefing of January 21, why did the minister not ask whether Canadian troops had themselves taken prisoners? Was his purpose to put himself in a position to claim that he did not know?