Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with the member for Toronto Centre.
I think the issue is whether or not the evidence on either side of this issue is conclusive. According to the Minister of National Defence, he has cast some doubt on the evidence produced by Mr. Colvin. Others have too. I believe inquiries are held, and trials are held in courts of law, to determine conclusively as to who is right and who is wrong on a particular issue.
This is not an issue of local concern. This is about the reputation of a country. This is about the values of our country. This is about a Canada that has been known for noble deeds internationally. This is about a Canada that is now becoming known for not wanting to look at torture, not wanting to know whether or not the government conducted itself in a way that may have violated international law.
Let me make two points before I begin with the body of my remarks. First, in any of what I say or my colleagues say in this House, we are not questioning the conduct of our soldiers on the ground. We are questioning the conduct of the government. It wilfully ignored the warnings for over 17 months. There is a huge body of compelling evidence it had those warnings, not just from Mr. Colvin but from respected international organizations. I want to put that on the table, so that we know it is about the government's conduct, it is about the politicians' conduct, and it is not about the conduct of our military on the ground.
Second, I believe there is a sentiment that exists on the government side of the House in the way it makes remarks about Taliban prisoners, that if one happens to a Taliban prisoner and is then sent to a risk of torture in an Afghan jail, then it may be somehow okay, that we should not really be looking at our own conduct as to what we are doing. We do not hang our scumbags and our murderers. If someone is shooting at us in the battlefield, that person is killed. That is legitimate. But once Canada arrests that person, we have an obligation under international law to behave with the best of standards that we have helped craft over the decades in this world. That is what Canada is known for.
Therefore, whether one is a Taliban prisoner or an ordinary Afghan prisoner, we have an obligation to treat them as we would treat prisoners of war. I believe that is a very important principle.
Let me just begin by saying that for the government, it is not about a search for truth, it has been a search for an alibi, essentially, for any manipulation of the facts that will get it off the hook for a mess of its own making. It has shown that it will go to any lengths, stoop to any tactic, smear any reputation or throw anyone under the bus in order to cobble one together.
Indeed, at its absolute lowest, we have seen the Prime Minister and the minister drape themselves in the mantle of protectors of the soldiers, whose very safety they may have themselves endangered with their callous disregard for the truth.
How has the government responded to this serious issue? Just as I have described, the way it responds to pretty much any issue. Canadians recognize this charade. They know the government. It denies, it stonewalls, and it obfuscates. It smears an experienced public servant. It leaks selective information to chosen journalists. It questions the patriotism of its critics. This is absolutely unacceptable.
There is such compelling evidence about the issues that we are talking about that in fact it would be a simple thing for the government to say, “We need an inquiry to resolve this issue. We need an inquiry to clear the air on this issue. We need an inquiry to remove this stain on Canada's reputation, this question mark on Canada's reputation, this question mark on Canada's moral leadership in the world”.
It is a very simple conclusion to come to, but the government will not come to it because it remains wilfully blind to the allegations of torture, to the warnings it received from not just Mr. Colvin but from the international organizations. It did nothing for 17 months.
I will put some facts on the table. These are excerpts. The Minister of National Defence, using the testimony of some others, has said there was no evidence in Colvin's documents, no mention of the word “torture” involved in Colvin's documents. I will read some of the memos from Afghanistan.
Memo 278, page 3, says that a particular detainee was “beaten with electrical cables while blindfolded”.
Memo 279, page 3, says:
During NDS interrogation had been kept awake for [section blacked out].... He also used the words beat and torture. ... When asked what was used he said a power cable or wire and pointed to his side and buttocks.
Memo 284, page 4, reads:
[section blacked out] claimed to have been detained due to a tribal dispute - a rival tribe labelled him [section blacked out] and accused him of being a Taliban [section blacked out].... He asked that we tell NDS not to beat the detainees, and to treat them like human beings rather than like animals.
Memo 284, page 4, reads, “He said he had been punched in the mouth for no apparent reason”. He was hit twice on the buttocks. “
Memo 287, page 1, a detainee said that he had been whipped with cables, shocked with electricity and/or otherwise 'hurt' while in NDS custody...“.
Memo 287, page 5, reads:
When asked about his treatment [this particular detainee] said he had a “very bad time. They hit us with cables and wires.” He said they shocked him with electricity. He showed us a number of scars on his legs, which he said were caused by the beating.
Memo 287, page 5, another detainee, “...detainees had their fingers cut and burned with a lighter...he was hit on his feet with a cable or big wire and forced to stand for two days...”.
That is the evidence from the redacted, blacked out, blanked out documents that the government has released pursuant to ATIPs that are available on the Internet. The government is absolutely so shameful that it would provide documents to journalists of choice. Everyone else has documents that the government wants to have except that it believes the members of Parliament like myself and others are a bit of a security risk. Members of Parliament cannot see those documents in their original form without the documents being redacted.
The ultimate issue is that the government has known from Mr. Colvin and from others what has happened in this situation. I will quote some of the international organizations. In September 2005, Human Rights Watch said, “security forces arbitrarily detained civilians and committed cruel, inhumane, and degrading acts”.
March 2006, the UN reports on the situation in Afghanistan, “Complaints of serious human rights violations committed by representatives of national security institutions, including arbitrary arrest, illegal detention and torture are numerous”.
March 2006. U.S. state department stated:
There continued to be instances in which security and factional forces committed extrajudicial killings and torture.
...local authorities in Herat, Helmand...and other locations...routinely torture and abuse detainees. Torture and abuse consisted of pulling out fingernails and toenails, burning with hot oil...sexual humiliation, and sodomy.
Then we have the Afghan Human Rights Commission and also Amnesty International.
I agree with the minister that there are several sides to this, that there is a dispute as to the facts, but no one on the other side of the House can deny that this is a dispute that is worth resolving, because once it is resolved it will restore Canada's reputation in the world. It would be made whole again. Right now there is a stain, a question mark on Canada's reputation and there is a question mark on the conduct, on the acts and on the omissions of the current government. To resolve all of that for the Canadian people and for the sake of our country we need to have a public inquiry.