Military Police Complaints Commission says the federal government’s refusal to release key letters written by Canadian Forces commanders on detainees

Ottawa accused of withholding military letters on detainees


Ottawa — From Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Apr. 09, 2010 10:32PM EDT Last updated on Friday, Apr. 09, 2010 11:31PM EDT
The military watchdog probing Canada’s record on Afghan detainees says Ottawa has been withholding documents that go to the heart of its inquiry.
The Military Police Complaints Commission says the federal government’s refusal to release key letters written by Canadian Forces commanders raises troubling concerns about Ottawa’s approach to divulging information in this matter.
At issue are two missives from Canadian commanders complaining about how the Department of Foreign Affairs was keeping them in the dark on the well-being of detainees handed over to Afghan jailers. Both Colonel Christian Juneau and Brigadier-General Guy Laroche wrote that this dearth of information contributed to a lengthy halt in detainee transfers in November, 2007.
It’s the latest roadblock for the commission, which has been repeatedly stymied by federal government lawyers during the course of its investigation.
The Globe and Mail obtained censored copies of these letters under access to information law and wrote about them on March 31. Although significant portions are blacked out, they undermine the Harper government’s insistence that it had immediately fixed the transfer process to address allegations of abuse against detainees handed over to Afghan’s notorious intelligence service.
The Military Police Complaints Commission says it had not seen these letters before and has written the federal government demanding uncensored copies. The commissioner’s lead lawyer says Ottawa should already have provided them.
“It is inconceivable that the documents … could have been considered irrelevant to the matters under inquiry,” lead commission lawyer Ron Lunau wrote on April 8.
He said it’s “a very significant concern” that the Department of National Defence didn’t see fit to furnish investigators with the letters.
Mr. Lunau said Ottawa must explain itself. “We would appreciate clarification of the test by which it is being determined by the government whether materials should be provided to the commission.”
The commission is probing allegations raised in a complaint by Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association that military police “aided and abetted the torture of detainees” by handing over prisoners to Afghan jailers despite reports of maltreatment.
Canada is bound by international conventions that make it a war crime to hand over prisoners to torture and oblige countries to take back captives being abused.
Department of Justice lawyer Alain Préfontaine said Ottawa didn’t provide the letters because it didn’t believe the wording of the commission’s request for documents covered them.
Mr. Préfontaine didn’t commit to releasing the letters to the commission but said it “can certainly ask” for them.
Paul Champ, the lawyer for Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said Ottawa is deliberately restricting records by narrowly interpreting requests for information. “I don't think it demonstrates the sort of forthrightness and transparency that we would expect from the government of Canada in this proceeding.”
The letters show that six months after the Harper government boasted of improved safeguards for detainees, top Canadian soldiers responsible for handing captives to the Afghans were distressed at the lack of monitoring reports on transferred captives.
The matter came to a head after Canada discovered on Nov. 5, 2007, that a detainee transferred to Afghans had been abused.“I am forced to conclude that I must cease approving the transfer of further detainees on the basis that the legal test upon which such decisions must be based can not be satisfied at this time, having due regard to all the information and lack of information at my disposal,” Col. Juneau wrote

Prime Minister's office v Clifford Olson... watch it Prime Minister!

This is a copy of an email I sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on March 28/10 criticizing him for his using one individuals case to fix what he perceives as a moral wrong, in other words, a person serving a life sentence in prison should not be able to qualify for Canada Pension. I also indicated the possible legal liability of the government of Canada trying to be discriminatory towards who can and cannot get Canada Pension.



Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer but have an intense interest in Canadian and international law.



You can contact me with your thoughts and opinions at the following email address (not the one I used to contact the PMO's office). msdogfood@hotmail.com

PMO email is pm@pm.gc.ca

Right Honorable Stephen Harper (as well as any of the staff reading this email)

I am writing in regard to your recent attention of the Clifford Olson pension situation. You seem to have taken particular interest in the fact that this man receives Canada Pension and the supplemental low income benefit. Although I certainly do agree that this person's previous actions are disturbing to most Canadians, every Canadian is entitled to Canada Pension, even Clifford Olson. From a media perspective, it looks like the only reason you are looking into whether convicted criminals should get Canada Pension or not is because this particular situation offends your moral and personal sensibilities. Because you stated that you are disturbed by the situation and have instructed your Ministers to "rectify the situation", this could be regarded as undue influence of your office or any other Minister whom you may direct on a single case which could, in the future, make it easy for Mr. Olson to file a discrimination claim against the Government of Canada. The discrimination claim could get far larger as there are a couple hundred prisoners that also meet the criteria for CPP. You have mentioned Mr. Olson by name which also makes your position a little more difficult in that it may look like a personal vendetta between you and Mr. Olson. You are about the only person in Canada who can phone up a particular Minister and ask them to look at a specific case which shows direct influence by you. This reminds me of a related case with a different Minister in a different department. In other words, Jason Kenney the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, in the summer of 2008 made what could be considered racial comments towards Roma or people of Roma descent. He alleged that particular group was trying to game the Refugee Claim system by making false refugee claims to enter Canada. In early March 2010, a case came up in the Federal Court of Canada in which a Roma individual appealed the denial of their refugee claim. The immigration lawyer representing this individual presented evidence that Mr. Kenney's racist comments about Roma may have influenced the immigration case review board. Although such evidence is not usually part of an immigration case appeal, those were public comments which the court may consider in their findings. Mr. Kenney should have kept his mouth shut as the government may lose the case. How does this apply to Mr. Olson? You used his name and his particular case in public. If you do try to alter or cease his pension, he could take legal action. One of the key factors in his legal action might be the comments made by the PMO's office in which case the Government of Canada may lose. This issue will be repeated if the other inmates also take action. As I am sure your in-house counsel has told you, Olson is not allowed to be paid royalties from the book he wrote and there are several outstanding civil claims and judgements from victims families. Any action on the part of the Government of Canada regarding his pension may slow the recovery of the civil judgements. In the end, discretion may be the better part of valor. Get out of the fight even though it may lead to short term political gain.

Opposition renews calls for halting transfers, public inquiry!.

Afghan detainee monitoring 'rigorous': PM
Opposition renews calls for halting transfers, public inquiry
Last Updated: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 1:44 PM ET
CBC News
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is defending Canada's "rigorous" monitoring of detainees transferred into Afghan custody, despite a top-level internal memo last summer warning his government that Canadians could face legal liability for complicity in torture by working with Afghan secret police.
In this July 2009 file photo, a man Afghan authorities suspect of insurgency-related activities is interrogated during a joint Canadian-Afghan army patrol in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province. (Colin Perkel/Canadian Press)The memo, shared with CBC News and reported on Tuesday, expresses concern about legal "risks" over Canada's partnership with the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) "without prior insight into its methods" and warns the Afghan intelligence service's wide powers of arrest and detention give it "considerable scope for the use of improper methods."
The report prompted renewed calls from opposition parties for Harper to call a public inquiry into the Afghan detainee affair and suspend ongoing transfers of prisoners into NDS custody.
In an appearance Wednesday in southern Ontario, Harper did not directly address the contents of the memo, but said the Conservative government's 2007 agreement with Afghanistan has ensured prisoners handed over to Afghan authorities are monitored and any allegations of abuse are investigated.
"These reports continue to be things that have been said before, and our position is the same: Whenever there are specific allegations of abuse under the agreement, action is taken to investigate those," Harper told reporters at an event with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty in Mississauga.
"There is a rigorous arrangement of monitoring and oversight in the new prisoner agreement, and it has continued to work effectively. As I say, if there are specific problems, they are investigated and appropriate action has been taken. That has been the case for over three years."
Tories misled Canadians: NDP critic
Citing the CBC News report on the document, the NDP said the "only solution" remaining for the government was to stop the transfer of detainees immediately.
"The Conservative government was informed that there would be legal consequences for sending prisoners to the NDS, yet they misled the Canadian people and continued to transfer," NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said Wednesday in a release.
Harper acknowledged that the 2007 agreement "doesn't mean that things are perfect in Afghanistan."
"No one claims that," he said. "But there are systems in place to monitor, and there is additional capacity [and] building exercises going on with the government of Afghanistan."
Government and military officials, past and present, have vehemently denied allegations by former top diplomat Richard Colvin that Canadian officials continued to transfer detainees into Afghan custody despite knowing about torture allegations.
In his testimony last November before the special parliamentary committee on the Afghanistan mission, Colvin alleged that all prisoners handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan authorities were likely subsequently abused and that government officials were well aware of the problem.Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/04/07/afghan-detainees-harper-documents.html#socialcomments#ixzz0kTIqZAKu

The Conservative government was warned of legal liability for complicity in torture.

The Conservative government was warned last summer that working with the Afghan secret police would lead to allegations that Canada condoned abuse and that Canadians may face legal liability for complicity in torture.
The information, contained in a candid top-level government memo shared with CBC News, shows that officials were worried that Canada's relationship with the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) was risky — and possibly illegal — even while the government was defending it.
The document warns the NDS is so secretive, even Canada and its allies are in the dark about most of what it does.
The NDS has wider powers of arrest and detention than most intelligence agencies, the memo says, and as a result, “there is considerable scope for the use of improper methods.” Engaging with the NDS “entails a degree of risk to Canadian interests,” it adds.
The document doesn't detail those risks specifically, but human rights lawyer Paul Champ said he has an idea of what they are.
Champ is the lawyer at the centre of several investigations into the alleged abuse of Afghan detainees. He said the NDS can't be trusted with detainees transferred into their custody by Canadian soldiers and the Conservative government is well aware of this.
“Make no mistake, the methods of the NDS are well known,” Champ told CBC News. “It's electric shocks, it's pulling out toenails, it's beating people with chains, it's hanging them for days. So when someone says abuse, that's a euphemism for torture.”
The memo's assessment of the NDS seems to make use of that euphemism. It cautions Canada ought to be concerned about its ongoing and longstanding relationship with the Afghan secret police.
“Canadian partnership in NDS projects without prior insight into its methods runs the risk of appearing to condone human rights abuses and acts which would be illegal under Canadian law,” the document states.
2007 transfer agreement fixed problems: Tories
Government officials admit that Canada has used the fruits of NDS intelligence-gathering. Brig-Gen. Denis Thompson, former commander of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, told a parliamentary committee last week that his assessment of the NDS in fighting the insurgency “is that they were a very valuable partner, and I mean, we acted on the intelligence we received from the NDS.”
But the government says that after allegations of torture of Afghan detainees first came to light in April 2007, Canada acted quickly to fix its transfer agreement with the Afghans.
Under the 2007 agreement, the government gained access to the prisons of the NDS and had Canadian monitors follow up on the condition of detainees. This scrutiny is supposed to ensure that detainees are protected from being tortured.
“Over three years ago, we've dealt with this issue,” Defence Minister Peter MacKay said in late March. “We've had a new transfer arrangement in place now that allows for monitoring [and] mentoring.”

Canadian girls dream big Angus-Reid poll,.

Confidence is necessary to achieve your dreams, and when your dreams are big it is all the more important.
Good news for Canada, our young girls are brimming with confidence and have their eyes on some lofty goals.
According to a recent Angus-Reid poll, Canadian girls between the ages of eight and 12 are looking more and more to top-flight careers, such as being a CEO, doctor or school principal, and are shunning some of the more traditional (read 1950s-era) vocations like secretary and homemaker.
It would be easy to cast aspersions on the survey simply because it was commissioned by Mattel, the toymaker responsible for Barbie dolls, which in itself has been an ongoing source of controversy for the image it portrays to young girls.
But the numbers paint a good picture for our future.
Consider the differences between the girls of today and the girls of yesterday (women now over the age of 40). More than half of today’s girls want to own their own company, while only one in five of yesterday’s girls had the same desire.
When they were young girls, 54% of women now over 40 said they wanted to be a secretary when they grew up. That number has fallen to 32%. A quarter of yesterday’s girls had designs on being a stay-at-home mom, but that has fallen to 17% for today’s young ladies.
Perhaps the most telling statistic about the mindset of young Canadian girls is that only 4% think their gender will prevent them from attaining their goals.
That means a vast majority of girls feel empowered to accomplish their aspirations, no matter how high their desires; more than half of the girls between the ages of eight and 12 surveyed are optimistic that nothing will stand in the way of their dreams.
It represents a major shift in the mindset of the fairer sex, and one that has been long awaited.
As 19th century American philosopher Henry David Thoreau said, “What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate.”
The same holds true for women.
This survey says the Canadian women of tomorrow are in good stead to be leaders in our nation.
And judging by the current state of leadership in Canada, it can’t happen a moment too soon.

Afghan security blocked access!.

Afghan security blocked Canadian detainee access

CBC News
Afghanistan's security service blocked Canadian efforts to get a human rights group's access to Afghan jails for three months in 2007, according to uncensored documents obtained by CBC News.
A version of the same document released by the federal government was heavily blacked out, but the uncensored version was leaked on Wednesday.
The Afghan human rights agency was appointed by Canada to be its eyes and ears in Afghan prisons at the time. The rights group was supposed to help ensure the safety of detainees who had been transferred from Canadian troops to the Afghans. The Afghan security service, the NDS, took those detainees from the Canadians.
The uncensored version of the document states there were "... five failed attempts to access Kandahar NDS facilities in 2007."
The document says the NDS response on detainee access was often, "You have your law, we have ours." It says Afghan human rights experts "discussed the access problem with [Afghan] President [Hamid] Karzai ... however, this did not help."
Cory Anderson, a former senior political adviser to Canada's provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar, echoed other concerns about the NDS during his testimony before a House of Commons committee on Afghanistan Wednesday
Anderson said there is "...endemic and systemic duplicity within the NDS, especially at the provincial level, that exists to this very day, and renders it virtually impossible to have an open and transparent relationship with their officials on the ground in Kandahar on this issue."
The diplomat noted that Canada is still handing over detainees to NDS, and he agreed the detainee issue was a potential "mission-killer" for Canada's efforts in Afghanistan.
'Doesn't change the partnership'
Anderson said Canada's original prisoner transfer agreement wasn't good, and the current prisoner transfer agreement isn't good enough, either.
"It doesn't change the partnership that we have with the people on the ground in Kandahar, who we are bound to work with, in the NDS," he said.
Anderson claimed the problem with the NDS is they are too secretive, and that they have no interest in working with Canadian officials to improve the lot of detainees. He said Canada should cut its detainee ties with the NDS.
Asked by committee member Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh if he considered the NDS to be a viable partner while he was in Afghanistan, Anderson replied: "No, they were not."
The uncensored documents and the diplomat's testimony came as the government continued its fight to keep MPs from getting full access to Afghanistan documents.
The opposition won a vote three months ago demanding uncensored versions of all documents.
However, on Wednesday, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson again said no.
"The practice of this House, and in other jurisdictions, has always been to acknowledge that some information ought not to be disclosed for considerations of public policy or national security," Nicholson said in the House of Commons.
There could be a constitutional showdown after MPs return from their Easter break. The Speaker of the House of Commons is set to rule on whether Parliament is entitled to see the uncensored documentsRead more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/04/01/afghanistan-nds-detainees-.html#socialcomments#ixzz0k0LYEeSo

proud to be Canadian!!!

So, What do we Canadians Have to be Proud of?
1. Smarties (not in the USA )
2. Crispy Crunch, Coffee Crisp (not in the USA )
3. The size of our footballs fields, one less down and bigger balls.
4. Baseball is Canadian - 1st game June 4, 1838 - Ingersoll, ON
5. Lacrosse is Canadian
6. Hockey is Canadian
7. Basketball is Canadian
8. Apple pie is Canadian
9. Mr. Dress-up beats Mr. Rogers
10. Tim Hortons beats Dunkin' Donuts
11. In the war of 1812, started by America , Canadians pushed the Americans back past their White House. Then we burned it, and most of Washington . We got bored because they ran away. Then, we came home and partied. Go figure.
12. Canada has the largest French population that never surrendered to Germany .
13. We have the largest English population that never Ever surrendered or withdrew during any war to anyone, anywhere. EVER! (We got clobbered in the odd battle but prevailed in ALL the wars)
14. Our civil war was fought in a bar and lasted a little over an hour.
15. The only person who was arrested in our civil war was an American mercenary, he slept in and missed the whole thing. He showed up just in time to get caught.
16. A Canadian invented Standard Time.
17. The Hudsons Bay Company once owned over 10% of the earth's surface and is still around as the world's oldest company.
18. The average dog sled team can kill and devour a full grown human in under 3 minutes. (That's more information than I need!)
19. We know what to do with the parts of a buffalo.
20. We don't marry our kin-folk.
21. We invented ski-doos, jet-skis, Velcro, zippers, insulin, penicillin and the telephone. Also short wave radios which save countless lives each year.
22. We have ALL frozen our tongues to something metal and lived to tell about it.
23. A Canadian invented Superman.
24. We have coloured money.
25. Our beer advertisements kick ass (Incidently...so does our beer) BUT MOST IMPORTANT!
The handles on our beer cases are big enough to fit your hands in with mitts on.
OOOoohhhhh..... Canada !! Oh yeah...And our elections only take one day!
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Pass this on if you're proud to be Canadian!!!