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OTTAWA — There is “no evidence” Canadian detainees transferred to Afghan jails were tortured, but Canada didn’t monitor them during 2006 and part of 2007 and reports of prison abuse were common, a senior diplomat told a committee of MPs Thursday.
Under intense questioning by opposition MPs, David Mulroney said he couldn’t guarantee that no detainee transferred by Canadians had been mistreated. Nor could he say with complete certainty that an Afghan prisoner who described to Canadian diplomats how he had been tortured, whipped with cables and shocked with electricity, had not been handed over by Canadians to Afghan authorities.
“I can’t say whether he was or wasn’t,” Mulroney said.
The senior diplomat served as Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s foreign and defence advisor between April 2006 and February 2007, before taking up the job of associate deputy minister at Foreign Affairs charged with co-ordinating efforts in Afghanistan.
Mulroney is currently serving as Canada’s ambassador to China.
He flew to Ottawa to counter claims made by fellow diplomat Richard Colvin that he muzzled officials and contributed to a situation where detainees were transferred without regard for the risk they could face torture – a breach of international law.
“We never ever transferred anyone if we thought there was a substantial risk of torture,” Mulroney told MPs.
He agreed with retired general Rick Hillier and retired lieutenant-general Michel Gauthier who said Wednesday there was nothing in Colvin’s reports to suggest detainees faced torture.
Colvin, a senior diplomat in Kandahar and later Kabul, testified he started warning Ottawa in May 2006 that there were serious problems.
Mulroney admitted it was Colvin’s reports that prompted a new agreement to be crafted in 2007 to ensure Canada would monitor detainees it transferred.
Mulroney said the government was attuned to the problems in the Afghan justice system and the possibility of mistreatment.
“We did not ignore it,” he said.
Colvin’s boss said Canadians and Afghans would have been “at more risk” if the Forces would not have been able to put Afghans captured on the battlefield into the justice system.
Mulroney also admitted telling Colvin that strongly held views were “best first expressed by phone” but said he did this to encourage diplomats to “talk through things.”
Opposition MPs are trying to find out if government ministers were aware of the risks of torture.
Mulroney said he briefed Peter MacKay, who was Foreign Affairs minister at the time, on the detainee issue, but he didn’t answer whether he had ever briefed the prime minister.
Bloc Quebecois MP Claude Bachand said he felt it was clear there is a “cover-up” going on.
althia.raj@sunmedia.ca