Crow, always best eaten fresh

The MND just made the following statement in the House of Commons. It's pretty self-explanatory:

Mr. Speaker, I rise on a Point of Order to correct answers to questions previously given to the House.

While I issued a public statement on March 8th to correct the record, this is my first opportunity to address the House.

In statements to the House and in two replies to Order Paper Questions, I inadvertently provided inaccurate information relating to the role, relationship and responsibilities of the International Committee of the Red Cross with regard to Canada and detainees turned over by Canada to Afghan authorities.

I fully and without reservation apologize to the House for providing inaccurate information to Members. I regret any confusion that may have resulted from these statements. The answers I gave were provided in good faith. I take full responsibility and do so without hesitation.

These statements were based on briefings I received from my department. The error was based on a misunderstanding of the reporting role of the International Committee of the Red Cross as it pertains to the treatment of Afghan detainees turned over by Canadian Forces in theater. The information we had was that the International Committee of the Red Cross would openly share information with Canada - and - that the International Committee of the Red Cross was responsible for supervision and monitoring of detainees.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to be clear. The International Committee of the Red Cross is under no obligation to share information with Canada on the treatment of detainees transferred by Canada to Afghan authorities.

The International Committee of the Red Cross provides this information to the country that has the detainees in its custody, in this case - Afghanistan.

The Arrangement between the Canadian Forces and Afghanistan recognizes the right of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees at any time they are in custody, whether held by the Canadian Forces or by Afghanistan.

Mr. Speaker, flowing from that correction I am also tabling revised responses to Order Paper Questions 13 and 33 which had stated: "the ICRC would advise us if they had any concerns about detainees whom we transferred to Afghan authorities" and that "the International Committee of the Red Cross would advise Afghan and Canadian authorities if they had any concerns about detainees." These revised responses will ensure the House has accurate information.

In addition, Mr. Speaker, today, I will be tabling a letter from two senior officials to the Chair of the Standing Committee on National Defence correcting information they provided to the Committee on December 11th 2006 regarding Canada's notification to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission of detainee transfers.

Mr. Speaker, these officials and I have appeared regularly before the Standing Committee on National Defence to provide parliamentarians with information and will continue to do so.

The letters establishing Canada's subsequent arrangement with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission - which will be tabled today - are posted on my Department's website.

To be clear, this arrangement which has taken over nine months to negotiate provides that Canada will notify the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (the AIHRC) of any detainees transferred to Afghan authorities and the AIHRC will inform Canada should it learn that a transferred detainee has been mistreated. Our government is committed to the goal of ensuring that each Afghan detainee is treated in accordance with international law. The protection of human rights is a central value to all Canadians and our government's commitment is to ensure that these values are upheld no matter where our Forces serve.

To reinforce that, I personally met with the Kandahar representative, the national representative, the Afghan Minister of Defence and President Karzai in which I received their personal commitments to ensure that the agreements will be honoured. The United Kingdom, Netherlands and Norway have similar agreements and depend on the Commission to provide information of suspected abuse.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that my statement this morning clarifies our important relationships with the Government of Afghanistan, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you for the opportunity to clarify these matters.

It will be interesting to see how the opposition responds.

And for those who are interested, here are the letters between the Commander of JTF Afghanistan and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission that lay out the agreement for monitoring between the two organizations.

Update: Well, the opposition responded, all right.

Denis Coderre is a complete and utter disgrace to his position:

I look the former arms' dealer straight in the eyes. Why will he not tell us what is really going on in Afghanistan?

Coderre isn't fit to carry O'Connor's kit bag, let alone demean his decades of public service with such a cheap smear in the House of Commons. What an ass.

Claude Bachand seems out of his element:

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of National Defence not only misled the House regarding the issue with the Red Cross, but he also said that he was capable of locating all the prisoners turned over to Afghan authorities. However, we now know that four have disappeared and one has died.

How could the Minister of National Defence appear so sure of himself, even though he definitely knew at the time that he could not locate all the prisoners turned over to Afghan authorities?

Claude, the man who died had horrible head trauma sustained in the TIC in which he was captured. If it wasn't for Canadian medical assistance and the professionalism of our troops, he would have died much more quickly in the field. As it stands, he at least had a shot at survival by the good graces of Canadian soldiers.

Do try to keep up.

As usual, the only parliamentary defence critic to land a blow was Dawn Black:

Mr. Speaker, the Conservative defence minister finally admitted he misled the House regarding the role of the Red Cross and the handling of prisoners taken by Canadians. We thank him for his apology. We are still waiting, however, for an apology from the Liberal defence minister who actually was the one who got us into this mess in the first place.

Ouch. Bill Graham, enjoy your retirement.