Mr. Speaker, I am happy to hear the Liberals clapping. I hope I will give them enough information that he will change his mind about supporting this motion.
Today before the House I address a motion proposed by the member for Ottawa Centre that the Government of Canada call a public inquiry into the transfer of Taliban prisoners in Canadian custody to Afghan authorities from 2001 to 2009. This motion is about partisan politics and is a waste of taxpayer dollars. This is a motion that I cannot support.
Canada has always been and remains committed to ensuring that Taliban prisoners are handled and transferred in accordance with our obligations under international law. There has never been a proven allegation of abuse involving Taliban prisoners transferred by Canadian Forces.
Calls for such an inquiry show complete distrust in the work done to date by our forces, our diplomats and the international organizations that are currently looking into the allegations surrounding detainee transfers.
Losing sight of Canada's engagement in Afghanistan is easy and focusing on the negative seems all too common. At this point, I would like to remind all of my colleagues who are listening that both the Bloc and the NDP did not support this mission in Afghanistan. Let us get that very clear. No wonder they are playing partisan politics.
In the last four years, our government has focused on the promotion of the rule of law. We take this commitment seriously. Casting aspersions of unproven allegations surrounding torture on our brave men and women only undermines the work that they are doing.
A key focus of Canada's mission in Afghanistan and of the combined international effort is to augment Afghans' trust in their own national authority. Canada is committed to helping Afghanistan get the necessary training to assume even greater responsibilities for its own security.
Our conduct in this matter has been instrumental in establishing the strong reputation that our brave Canadian men and women have today. When our military and diplomats have been presented with credible, substantiated evidence, they have taken appropriate action and yet the opposition refuses to believe that. It keeps refusing to believe our generals and the diplomats who have stated quite clearly that when they had credible evidence they took action.
Ongoing and persistent insurgencies against the national government there presents very real risks to Canadians, as well as to Afghan personnel and civilians, and the implementation of capacity building projects. This situation is particularly acute in Kandahar province. These risks weigh significantly on Canada's programming but have been overcome with planning through risk management and determination.
Taliban prisoners are detained by Canadian Forces and then they are turned over to Afghan authorities because they have attacked or killed Canadian soldiers or there is credible information to suggest they intend to do that.
At this time I want to make one point very clear. The Liberal opposition critic stood today and said that an Afghan detainee was not necessarily a Taliban, that he could be anybody else. Members of the NDP keeps saying that these detainees are not Taliban. They do not like it when we use the word Taliban but our Canadian soldiers are fighting the Taliban. They are not fighting anybody else. When they take people prisoners, they are people who want to kill Canadian soldiers. Let that be very clear. When we are talking about the Taliban, the NDP should not stand up in the House and say that they are not Taliban. They are Taliban because that is who we are fighting.
Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous and poorest countries in the world. Our whole government mission there is to support both the Government of Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan so that they will have a safe environment. We need to be clear about the importance of having a safe environment.
Everyone knows the record of the Taliban government, which is why the international community, under a UN mandated mission, went to help Afghanistan get rid of all the people who were attacking everyone else. It is very important to understand who we are fighting and who these so-called detainees are. These are people who have been attacking us and will continue to attack us.
However, it is very important to understand, as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence has stated, that once we know there is credible evidence, we will then take action. We have been working and our soldiers have been working according to international rules. Why can the opposition not understand that?
I will give one example of how the opposition tries to turn this whole thing into partisan politics. This morning, when the defence critic for the Bloc was standing up, a member of his party stood and said that his party had supported this mission in Afghanistan. Two motions came out supporting this mission and I can show from the record that the Bloc did not support the mission in Afghanistan. I found it amazing that a member of the Bloc would stand and say that his party supported the mission in Afghanistan.
When members of the NDP were making a statement, they talked about Amnesty International that went before the court and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. What they refused to tell anybody else was that the Federal Court and the Supreme Court declined to listen to their case. Also, these detainee transfers have been subject to a Canadian Forces review, an RCMP review and a board of inquiry has been conducted. The Military Police Complaints Commission has also done its job on this subject.
We have provided quarterly reports and, most important, are under way now based on what has been said. Even the Special Committee on Afghanistan is listening to this subject. The committee has had people before it who are involved in Afghanistan, such as the generals and the diplomats, and more are coming. They will let us know.
What I do not understand is why they need a public inquiry. For what and to do what? It is wasteful. They keep talking about not getting documents but, as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence has said, documents will be provided. Of course they need to be redacted because of the need for security, but we need to be reasonable. They should get the information before they start going there.
The call for this public inquiry is nothing more than partisan politics by the opposition members. I would like to tell them that this is a very serious matter and they need to be very careful. They should not destroy the reputation of our Canadian soldiers internationally.
The Bloc member said that when the Prime Minister goes to China he should talk about human rights. What are we talking about? What human rights? Who has abused the human rights of the detainees? The people on the ground have stated that, as far as they are concerned, if credible evidence is provided, and they have given examples of when it was provided, they would stop the transfers.
Let us look at the good work Canadians, our officers and our diplomats have been doing in that country and let us stick to the great things this country is doing to help Afghanistan become a stable country.
