Shame falls to MacKay

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Defence Minister Peter MacKay took great solace, and told the country as much, in a report by the Military Police Complaints Commission, which on Wednesday cleared eight senior police officers of allegations they didn't fulfil their duties to protect Afghan detainees in 2007 and 2008 from risk of torture. Mr. MacKay is twisting the commission's findings to suit his needs, ignoring the fact it pointed a damning finger instead at military senior commanders.

Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association complained the military police by 2007 and 2008 had reason, and a duty, to investigate military commanders who were directing the transfers, given what was known about abuse, rights violations and torture of prisoners Canada transferred to Afghan authorities. All the violations are contrary to the UN conventions of war, which demand countries protect detainees' rights.

The commission's four-year inquiry concluded senior military brass "siloed" the military police, marginalized it and kept it out of the loop on information, allegations and evidence of abuses. Further, senior command of the Canadian Forces ensured MPs had no involvement in post-transfer issues.

Until late 2007, Canada could not make site visits to detention facilities and jails run by the Afghans, post-transfer of detainees. Those visits began only after a series of news articles in the Globe and Mail and La Presse exposed the torture claims of detainees.

But prior to that, the commission found, there was sufficient warning in the international community, such that senior defence officials ought to have had suspicions. Even after The Globe stories ran, those officials failed to properly investigate.

Mr. MacKay should have known enough, or asked the right questions, to have acted earlier on protecting the health and rights of Canada's detainees. Other countries put safeguards, such as site visits, into their agreements.

But the transgression of duty didn't stop there. The commission had harsh criticism for the conduct of the government in obstructing its inquiry into the allegations of wrongdoing. The government mounted repeat legal challenges of the MPCC's authority, through obstinate refusal -- 21 months in one protracted span -- to release documents requested. Its exercise of the Canada Evidence Act's provisions to prevent release of information potentially injurious to national security was approaching hostility. And it restricted the commission's access to critical witnesses.

The commission noted its experience is hauntingly similar to the obstructionism that marred an inquiry's investigation into the 1993 beating death of a Somalia teenager by Canadian soldiers. That inquiry triggered the formation of MPCC. But on Wednesday, the government indicated it is unwilling to beef up the authority of the commission to help prevent such obstructionism in the future. It is cool to the idea of giving the MPCC greater access to its records, as was recommended.

That will give sanctuary, in the future, should governments again have something to hide. Critics have rightly reflected Canada, then, is likely to see a repeat of the futility of the Somalia and Afghanistan investigations. That shame, Mr. MacKay, lands squarely on your shoulders.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition June 29, 2012 A12