Mr. Speaker, as I just stated, it would not have met a legal standard, even at a basic level of police laying a charge.
Let us revisit his question with respect to first-hand information. Here is a quote from General Hillier, who, as we know, was the chief of defence staff during the time in question. This is what he said, “We didn't base our actions upon people making statements that all detainees were being tortured. How ludicrous a statement is that from any one single individual who really has no knowledge to be able to say something like that”. He went on to say, “There was no reason based on what was in those reports for anybody to bring it to my attention. After having read that I am absolutely confident that was indeed the case”.
Here is another quote from General Gauthier, who was the commander in Afghanistan during the time in question. He said, “Again, I can very safely say there is nothing in any of these 2006 reports that caused any of the subject matter experts on my staff, nor, by extension, me, to be alerted me to either the fact of torture or a very high risk of torture, nothing”.
Here is a quote from what Mr. Mulroney had to say. He said, “I can say we have no evidence that any Canadian-transferred detainee was mistreated”.
These are from individuals on the ground specifically tasked and responsible for the mission. We based our decisions and actions on these individuals. This is how the government acted on the trusted people who were absolutely in charge of the mission. Based upon that, we acted.