Excerpt:
Of course this is great! But what about other child soldiers like
Omar Khadr, can't he be rehabilitated and sent to school as well? Or is
the child soldier status only reserved for those war-ravaged countries
where Americans have interests in keeping things safe and stable?
Unfortunately, according to the U.S. and Canadian governments, the
answer to my question seems to be an outrageous "No." Indeed, the
following sad fact has now been recorded by history: Omar Khadr is the
first convicted child soldier since World War II. His conviction came at
an end of a shameful military trial where not a single basic principle
of transparency and justice was followed and where the torture and abuse
Khadr endured was simply brushed away.
The Conservative government has refused a parliamentary committee's
request to allow the military's former top lawyer to testify without
legal restrictions on the Afghan detainee affair, CBC news has learned.
Ken
Watkin, Canada's former chief military prosecutor, said his involvement
with the Afghan detainee file was covered by solicitor-client
privilege. (Dan Balilty/Associated Press)Letters
obtained by CBC news show that Defence Minister Peter MacKay was
unwilling to waive the government's right to solicitor-client privilege
when it comes to the testimony of the military's one-time senior legal
adviser, despite a request for it to do so from the House of Commons
special committee on Afghanistan.
Last November, retired brigadier-general Ken Watkin, a former judge
advocate general of the Canadian Forces, was called to testify before
the committee as it investigated the Canadian government's handling of
Afghan detainees.
OTTAWA— After weeks of talks, the Liberals and Bloc have signed a
deal with the government on a process to vet and release documents about
Afghan prisoner torture.
But the NDP refused and walked away
from the process, saying it’s far too secretive and won’t reveal what
the government knew about prisoner torture.
With the Liberals and Bloc onside the deal will go ahead, but the NDP
says it will not uncover the truth about the detainee issue.
“We
don’t think this process is adequate and won’t get at the truth. That’s
why we are saying there should be a full public inquiry,” NDP MP Jack
Harris said Tuesday.
...
Harris said the NDP believed there was an agreement in principle that
MPs would have access to all documents and that they would decide what
would not be released for reasons of national security.
"We now
have a document that is so narrow and so constrained ... we just think
the process is not open enough, not transparent enough and doesn't get
at the truth and doesn't honour the Speaker's ruling," he said.
OTTAWA – New Democrats will not sign the Harper government’s latest
proposal on access to Afghan detainee documents because it means
Canadians will never learn the truth about torture in Afghanistan, says
New Democrat Leader Jack Layton.
“The proposal denies the rights of Parliament, allows the government
to hijack the process and doesn’t live up to spirit or terms of the
Speaker’s ruling. The other parties were willing to accept compromises
that we believe would prevent the truth from coming out. This is very
much like the Blue Ribbon panel on EI that the Conservatives talked the
Liberals into last June. And what happened there? Absolutely nothing.
The Conservatives played the Liberals for dupes all summer long.”
In April, House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken ordered the
government to negotiate an agreement with the opposition parties that
would give them access to the documents. On May 14, the parties reached
an agreement in principle. Since then, the government has been dragging
its feet in negotiations on the terms of the document releases and
insisting on conditions that New Democrats consider unacceptable.
The Conservatives’ latest proposal:
In the U.S., the Department of Justice advised President George Bush
that he could ignore international law when it came to the torture of
detainees. That advice was made public.
“But the agreement the Conservatives are proposing here would make
that impossible. We believe Canadians have a right to know who the
government is listening to, and the arguments they are making,” said Mr.
Layton. “The Conservatives want to conceal the truth about the Afghan
detainee affair. The NDP will not participate in this dishonest charade.
We now believe the only satisfactory path to obtaining the truth is
through a full judicial inquiry.”
Harper answered by again using soldiers as a shield. There's no evidence, he said for the umpteenth time, that Canadians did anything wrong.
That's an artful dodge that ducks not one but two of the most salient points. One is that the Red Cross, diplomat Richard Colvin and Afghan human rights watchdogs provided compelling warnings that Canadian prisoners were routinely tortured by Afghans. The other is that international law requires only suspicion, not proof, before a country transferring prisoners must act to protect them from abuse.
Harper's stonewall defence is disingenuous at best, deceptive at worst. It suggests he doesn't know the law or fears the truth.
Equally troubling, the Prime Minister's determination to shift the focus away from himself, ministers and most senior commanders puts at risk the very troops and military institutions that Conservatives accuse political rivals of attacking.
As sure as war is hell, the Afghanistan story will inevitably unfold and the walls will come tumbling down. When they do, Harper, his cabinet and at least one chief of defence staff will have much to explain.
