"The Harper government knew from its own officials that prisoners held by Afghan security forces faced the possibility of torture, abuse and extrajudicial killing, The Globe and Mail has learned.
"But the government has eradicated every single reference to torture and abuse in prison from a heavily blacked-out version of a report prepared by Canadian diplomats in Kabul and released under an access-to-information request.
"Initially, Ottawa denied the existence of the report, responding in writing that "no such report on human-rights performance in other countries exists." After complaints to the Access to Information Commissioner, it released a heavily edited version this week.
"Among the sentences blacked out by the Foreign Affairs Department in the report's summary is "Extra judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common," according to full passages of the report obtained independently by The Globe."
Thus reported The Globe and Mail this morning. Following revelations by the Globe last weekend, the Harper government continued its defence that it has worked to ensure prisoners turned-over to Afghan police are treated humanely but, since the prisoners are terrorists and other assorted bad guys, if they are subsequently tortured, it's only letting them get what they deserve. That Canada may very well be violating its Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners is of little concern to the Harper government. As is Canada's international reputation.
Harper's defence minister, Gordon O'Connor, was caught-out in a lie last month when he told Parliament that the Red Cross was overseeing the fair-treatment of prisoners. The government hastily responded with a new agreement with the Afghanistan independent human rights watch-dog to monitor the treatment of prisoners. Unfortunately, the human rights monitor has no access to the prisoners and unable to provide any oversight. O'Connor first mislead Parliament and then incompetently implemented a worthless agreement to ensure humanitarian treatment of prisoners, but he appears to have, for now at least, the full confidence of the PM.
Why? Because if the PM dismissed his minister, it would be admission of a major failure in managing the Afghan mission. Too much of the government's reputation is on the line to admit such failure. This is a big one that the PM cannot blame on the previous government. The long-term commitment to what is becoming an impossible situation in Afghanistan was conceived by "Canada's New Government" and when it goes wrong, it's "Canada's New Government's" problem to solve - not black-out from the public record.
Stockwell Day can call every Afghani a terrorist if he wants, but Canadians know at least some of the arrestees are innocent farmers and villagers as terrified of Taliban retribution if they co-operate with NATO forces and Afghan police as they are of those same forces and police. In many cases the the arrestees are innocents. When they are not, their human rights , including the right not to be tortured, must still be respected, or why are Canadians fighting and dying in Afghanistan in a battle for justice and democracy?
the blog: subjective comments on Canada and the world
"But the government has eradicated every single reference to torture and abuse in prison from a heavily blacked-out version of a report prepared by Canadian diplomats in Kabul and released under an access-to-information request.
"Initially, Ottawa denied the existence of the report, responding in writing that "no such report on human-rights performance in other countries exists." After complaints to the Access to Information Commissioner, it released a heavily edited version this week.
"Among the sentences blacked out by the Foreign Affairs Department in the report's summary is "Extra judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common," according to full passages of the report obtained independently by The Globe."
Thus reported The Globe and Mail this morning. Following revelations by the Globe last weekend, the Harper government continued its defence that it has worked to ensure prisoners turned-over to Afghan police are treated humanely but, since the prisoners are terrorists and other assorted bad guys, if they are subsequently tortured, it's only letting them get what they deserve. That Canada may very well be violating its Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners is of little concern to the Harper government. As is Canada's international reputation.
Harper's defence minister, Gordon O'Connor, was caught-out in a lie last month when he told Parliament that the Red Cross was overseeing the fair-treatment of prisoners. The government hastily responded with a new agreement with the Afghanistan independent human rights watch-dog to monitor the treatment of prisoners. Unfortunately, the human rights monitor has no access to the prisoners and unable to provide any oversight. O'Connor first mislead Parliament and then incompetently implemented a worthless agreement to ensure humanitarian treatment of prisoners, but he appears to have, for now at least, the full confidence of the PM.
Why? Because if the PM dismissed his minister, it would be admission of a major failure in managing the Afghan mission. Too much of the government's reputation is on the line to admit such failure. This is a big one that the PM cannot blame on the previous government. The long-term commitment to what is becoming an impossible situation in Afghanistan was conceived by "Canada's New Government" and when it goes wrong, it's "Canada's New Government's" problem to solve - not black-out from the public record.
Stockwell Day can call every Afghani a terrorist if he wants, but Canadians know at least some of the arrestees are innocent farmers and villagers as terrified of Taliban retribution if they co-operate with NATO forces and Afghan police as they are of those same forces and police. In many cases the the arrestees are innocents. When they are not, their human rights , including the right not to be tortured, must still be respected, or why are Canadians fighting and dying in Afghanistan in a battle for justice and democracy?
the blog: subjective comments on Canada and the world
