Mr. Speaker, one of the concerns people have had around the debate and, in particular, at committee has been trying to sort out the different evidence provided by witnesses to committee.
I will just read into the record the question I asked of the three generals at the Afghan committee. I asked, “was there...visits to NDS prison or to Sarposa prison during 2005, 2006 by Canadian officials to follow-up...[on] the detainees...?”
The following answers were provided. General Hillier said, “That was not part of our mandate in the agreement”. Lieutenant-General Gauthier said, “Exactly right and I made reference to that in my comments, that our soldiers weren't trained human rights monitors”. General Fraser said, “That wasn't part of our mandate to go and inspect prisons”.
I just say that to ask my colleague the following questions.
The generals were very clear that they did not have a role in monitoring what was going on in the jails. Mr. Colvin was raising concerns about monitoring what was going on in the jails. Mr. Mulroney said that we were doing no follow up until he came in to try to fix things, leaving a whole 15 to 16 months where detainees were being transferred and there was no monitoring of what was happening in the prison.
Does my colleague from B.C. not think it is about time we find out exactly what was going on in order to sort out the stories? The generals said that it was not their job, and I agree with them. We have Mr. Mulroney who said that it was not his job. We have Mr. Colvin who said that he found out what was going on, that he told people but that no one responded.
Do we not need an inquiry to figure out what is going on?