Peter MacKay

[Afghanistan, November 25th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, that is not correct. We continued cooperating in this matter.

We have in fact encouraged people to come forward. We are looking forward to, as I think Canadians are, hearing from David Mulroney, who was in a position to assess the situation in Afghanistan as a senior public servant at that time.

We will be hearing from generals and from other individuals involved in the extraordinary effort that Canada was making at that time to improve human rights in Afghanistan, to invest in its prison system, to train officials, to see that prisoners we were responsible for and transferred to Afghans were treated humanely.

This is the extraordinary effort that our country has made. We can be proud of it.

[Afghanistan, November 25th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, that is false. That is not correct. The government cooperated and did everything necessary. It heard from witnesses and studied the situations in Afghanistan.

We have cooperated in arm's-length investigations. We are cooperating with the parliamentary committee. We are turning over documents. We are allowing witnesses to give testimony with respect to this issue. We will hear from generals today. We will hear from other officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

This issue will receive a full airing, as it does each and every day.

[Afghanistan, November 25th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, we have cooperated. We have invested heavily in improvements in human rights. We have invested in the training of prison officials, of justice officials, of police on the ground in Afghanistan.

Upon taking office, we improved upon the transfer arrangement to ensure that we could have more people go into the prison system to monitor situations where prisoners for whom we were responsible were transferred. We have acted substantially.

The reality is we inherited a bad situation left by the hon. member's government. When we took office, we took action.

[Afghanistan, November 25th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as we have indicated on a number of occasions, we are cooperating with respect to documents. We are cooperating with respect to the committee examining this situation.

With respect to evidence, what the hon. member is referring to are general conditions within the Afghan prison system. What we are seized with and what we are responsible for are prisoners transferred by Canadian Forces. That is the focus of the issue.

We all have concerns about the conditions of Afghan prisons, which is why we are investing in human rights and why we are investing in making improvements there. We have been doing that since 2006.

[Afghanistan, November 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, it is the responsibility of the opposition and, in fact, the responsibility of the committee to hear from witnesses who have relevant information to place before the committee, particularly when they have been invited to come and testify, when they have indicated their willingness to come and testify and when their names have been impugned. For members of the opposition to cast aspersions on that person and suggest that somehow the person is partisan is hypocritical.

The words, the hot breath of the member opposite is dripping with hypocrisy in suggesting they will not let the member testify.

[Afghanistan, November 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as has been stated many times, we will release all documents legally obliged to do so.

What is interesting is these qualifications that are now being put in place by members opposite. These aspersions that are being now cast upon individuals who want to come forward and testify, somehow suggesting that they are partisan.

Here is what Mr. Paul Chapin, an individual who is non-partisan and someone who is a respected public servant, had to say:

Colvin’s charge is not that there was general torture going on. His charge is that we, Canada, knowingly turned over people to be tortured. And that’s irresponsible because he has no hard evidence for that.

[Afghanistan, November 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I have a few points of correction. These are operational decisions taken on the ground by commanders, as was indicated by Chief of Defence Staff Walt Natynczyk. We know the transfer arrangement works much better now because we have more access. We have more ability to have eyes on inside the Afghan prisons. Numerous officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs to Public Safety now have that ability.

It is an improved transfer arrangement. We know it works. We know it is in place to protect human rights, and we are proud of that arrangement.

[Afghanistan, November 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as has been stated numerous times in the House, two and half years ago we did improve upon a transfer arrangement that allowed for operational pauses. The Afghan officials were not living up to the expectations and were not complying in this instance. One of those occurred when we were not given the unfettered access.

We have improved upon that system. We now have rigorous checks and balances that allow Canadian officials to go into prisons and to track Taliban prisoners who have been transferred by Canadian Forces. We have improved upon that. When we are satisfied with the provisions being met, then the transfers will of course begin again.

[Afghanistan, November 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, again, all documents legally required by the government to be disclosed will be disclosed. That is what we have done and that is what we will continue to do.

I want to draw attention to the fact that it is curious the opposition members are refusing to hear from a senior member of the public service who has actually been named by another witness. They appear reluctant to have this individual give his testimony. This seems to run completely contrary to the argument that they want to get to the bottom of the matter.

This individual has gone to great lengths to be here and to make himself available. I hope those members will not block testimony from an impartial individual who has knowledge about this issue.

[Afghanistan, November 24th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, as the Prime Minister has just said, all documents that are legally required will be disclosed. We have been doing that. We continue to do that.

I want to point out that the Leader of the Opposition has just said that without those documents the committee cannot hear from witnesses. We have heard from exactly two sets of witnesses and three days of testimony. There was absolutely no qualifications on that testimony previously. I am hopeful that we will see all witnesses who want to come forward have the ability to testify, and we will not see this partisan attempt to block testimony.