DetaineeDocWatch: That's one way to control the story, at least in the short term.
By Kady O'Malley
So, according to this week's Hill Times, it seems that last Thursday's surprise move by the government to table more than 2,500 pages of heavily censored detainee-related documents had what one should assume -- for the moment, at least, until proven otherwise -- was an unintended result of temporarily preventing lawyers for the parties involved in the ongoing Military Police Complaints Commission investigation from commenting on the contents:
The sudden release of the documents, which MPs later learned had been tabled but not yet released at an inquiry being conducted by the Military Police Complaints Commission, resulted in an unusual circumstance for lawyers who were taking part in the commission inquiry into detainee treatment. Although the government released the documents publicly in the Commons, thus making them available to the Parliamentary press gallery and the public, the lawyers at the inquiry could not discuss them."All or nearly all are documents that have been produced to the MPCC over the past two months," Paul Champ, a lawyer for Amnesty International, told The Hill Times. "We have been unable to speak about them because we are bound by a legal undertaking of confidentiality until they are formally introduced as exhibits at the MPCC hearing. We plan to write to the MPCC and ask if we can disclose them."Inside Politics readers will recall that much the same Catch 22-like conundrum arose following what then-MPCC chair Peter Tinsley referred to as the "selective public circulation" of what are now known as the Colvin files, which, he noted, somehow wound up in the hands of "at least one media outlet" before it had been officially released as evidence.
Following an urgent request from Amnesty International Canada and the BC Civil Liberties Association, he agreed to waive the voluntary undertaking of confidentiality, noting that "a selective release of documents and information has already occurred through means outside the Commission's control" -- without, he pointed out, "proper context and safeguards" -- which "threatens the reputational interests of at least one witness, Mr. Colvin," who had been exposed to "the surely unwelcome glare of unwanted publicity." Given that this latest batch of documents has been tabled in the House of Commons, it's hard to imagine that interim MPCC chair Glenn Stannard, would come out with a radically different ruling than his predecessor on what will likely be a very similar waiver request, immediately, but for the next few days, at least, the gag is likely to remain in effect on Champ and other lawyers involved in the MPCC hearings, which means that they may not be able to share their insight on any as yet unnoticed aspects of the new material until the House rises for the Easter break. Oh, and speaking of running down the clock, it's probably also worth noting that the opposition parties appear to be growing increasingly impatient with the curiously leisurely approach the government seems to be taking with regard to its response to those questions of privileged that were raised on March 18th. We got a taste of that during the impromptu debate that broke out last week, but that same Hill Times article has more on the subject, including Liberal MP Derek Lee's pointed musings that the House has to deal with the matter "within the next several days or week or two," as does the Toronto Star, which reported over the weekend that the opposition may "put supplementary pressure" on the government to comply with the order. Suffice it to say that the speaker may want to remind the ministers involved -- Rob Nicholson, Peter MacKay and Lawrence Cannon -- that when he agreed to put off his deliberations until he'd heard their submissions on the issue, he didn't mean that he'd wait around forever.
Finally, a reminder: You can find links to the full set of newly released detainee-related documents here, or read them from the comfort of your browser here. Let us know if you find
anything that piques your interest!
