Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 35(2) I have the following succinct explanation to make to the minority report filed by the Canadian Alliance to the report just tabled.
We dissented from the majority report for the following reasons. First, the evidence before the committee clearly indicated that the minister was thoroughly briefed on the matter of Canadian troops taking detainees in Afghanistan on January 21. The minister understood the matter and he did not seek further clarification contrary to his own testimony. We concluded from this evidence that the minister knew of the matter on January 21.
Second, it appeared that the minister misled the House. As the majority report will indicate one must examine the context of the relevant events around the minister's conduct in order to establish intent. In this case the context was the serious division within the ranks of the government members and the apparent need for the minister to avoid a confrontation with his own caucus on January 26 and January 27.
We concluded from this that the minister intended to demonstrate that he first knew of the incident on January 25 rather than January--