Ujjal Dosanjh

[Afghanistan, June 11th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, let me repeat, last week the Minister of Public Safety said that four allegations of detainee torture had come to light in Afghanistan. The Minister of Foreign Affairs said there were six in total. His staff had to clarify it twice later on.

Is any one of them right? Do they even know which one of them is correct, if at all? Which of these ministers is actually in charge of this important issue of detainee torture?

[Afghanistan, June 6th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, let us see how transparent the government is.

On the Pentagon website the United States government has made available entire lists of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. It gives names, citizenship, and other details. The Canadian government will not give us its numbers. Clearly, disclosure is not a matter of operational security for the U.S. forces.

Will the government admit that it refuses to disclose this information because it fears for its own political security, or has it lost track of those detainees?

[Afghanistan, June 6th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, on the detainee question, there was the saga of the report of foreign affairs, which the government told us did not exist, but later produced it, heavily censored. Now in response to a motion from the foreign affairs committee for information on the numbers of detainees captured, transferred and to whom, the government has invoked, as it did just now, operational security.

Why is the government really hiding this information? Is it really operational security, or is it the political security of the government itself?

[Afghanistan, May 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, unlike the minister, I would not be partisan. I want to talk about the specifics while our men and women are making sacrifices in Afghanistan.

Despite the $139 million CIDA has spent on development programs, the report states, among other things, that the Kandahar hospital is falling apart, is filthy and has no heat in the winter.

As a result of such failures we are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. When will the government recognize that there is more to winning in Afghanistan than just combat?

[Afghanistan, May 29th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the report released yesterday by the Senlis Council states that Canada's ineffective development efforts are compromising the hard-won victories of our soldiers in Afghanistan. It says that the government has articulated no objective for Kandahar province, that our development and aid strategies are incoherent and that there is a tremendous imbalance between our military mission and our humanitarian mission efforts.

When will the Prime Minister stop belittling his critics and address the concerns raised in this very important report?

[Afghanistan, May 3rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, this agreement was conveniently signed just hours before the start of the Federal Court proceedings this morning. Even the judge is said to have remarked on the curious timing of this particular agreement. Canadians were forced to learn therefore about this agreement from a Federal Court judge rather than from the responsible minister.

Did the foreign affairs minister push forward the signing of this critical international agreement in order to save the government from a public embarrassment before our courts?

[Afghanistan, May 3rd, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, when we are talking about a deal concerning the transfer of detainees by the Canadian Forces, how is it possible that the chief of the defence staff has said he does not know the details of this deal? Did the Minister of Foreign Affairs consult with anybody at the Department of National Defence or has the Prime Minister so completely lost confidence in that minister that he kept the minister out of the loop?

[Afghanistan, April 30th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, the government was warned and did absolutely nothing. The government has an obligation to thoroughly investigate all allegations of torture and it did not.

Human Rights Watch told the foreign affairs minister to work with NATO to develop a common policy for better monitoring to “investigate allegations of prisoner abuse” and “to publicize the names of detainees”.

Why did the Conservatives cover up what Human Rights Watch was telling them for five months?

[Afghanistan, April 30th, 2007]

Mr. Speaker, in another damaging revelation, we learned today that the government was warned last year about the treatment of detainees handed over to Afghan prisons.

Human Rights Watch wrote to NATO, copying our foreign affairs minister, on November 28, 2006, saying:

We have received credible reports about mistreatment of detainees...in some cases the treatment amounted to torture.

Why did the Conservatives hide this memo for almost five months?

[Business of Supply, April 26th, 2007]

It is the combat role. There are many roles. Our troops may have many other roles as well in Afghanistan. We have the reconstruction and development work, which has been virtually neglected by the government ever since it has taken over.