Mr. Speaker, in his speech the minister started off by saying that the mission was in a difficult and complex environment, that military personnel were putting their lives in danger, that we were protecting people from danger and preventing the possibility of terrorist attacks on Canada and that the 2005 agreement guiding the transfer of detainees was inadequate. If we look at all those reasons, I would not have been surprised for the minister then to conclude,“So now you understand why there is the possibility that in fact was torture of detainees who were transferred”.
Does the minister believe that the committee, which has limited meeting time and could not possibly recall various witnesses or have the access that a public inquiry would have, would be able to ultimately find out where we are going on this? We have the independence, because there is a partisan element, the effectiveness, we obviously know the restrictions on that, the adequacy of the work, again it is just the committee structure itself, the investigative powers and the transparency and openness, which is not happening now particularly with regard to those documents. Why will the minister not admit that a public inquiry will get to the truth?