Tories sabotage Afghan committee meeting
Flashback: Canada ‘defended’ torturer | Ottawa won’t release Afghan torture documents | Top general’s Afghan detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry | Richard Colvin’s Afghan torture memos reveal government concealed prisoner access issues | Torture claims unreliable, officials say, despite having found evidence of torture | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Torture claims weren’t probed, official testified | Harper government changes tune on Afghan prisoner issue | Colvin’s testimony true: former Afghan MP | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’
CBC News
December 15, 2009
An emergency meeting of the special Commons committee on Afghanistan could not go ahead Tuesday when all seven Conservative members failed to show up.
The committee, which is looking into what Canada knew about alleged abuse of prisoners in Afghan jails, requires a quorum of seven members. The no-show by Conservative MPs left it with just six.
The Liberal, NDP and Bloc Québécois members invited the media into the room to show them the empty chairs and talked informally among themselves.
However, no clerk was present and nothing was accomplished in terms of deciding what witnesses to hear from next or in scheduling future meetings.
The Tory boycott left opposition MPs frustrated and fuelled speculation that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is planning to prorogue Parliament – a move that would block further committee meetings until as late as March.
NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar was visibly angry, saying government MPs are paid to show up.
‘Playing politics’
Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh called it “a sad day.” Dosanjh said there is no more important debate for parliamentarians than the conduct of a war and accused the government of evading its responsibility.
“This is a meeting of the special committee on Afghanistan, looking at the issue where we have sent our men and women into harm’s way,” he said. “They’re dying for us and this government is playing politics with an issue as serious and abhorrent as torture.”
Dosanjh said the government “deeply underestimates” the desire of Canadians to know what is being done in their name overseas.
Conservative MP Laurie Hawn, parliamentary secretary to the minister of defence, said holding an emergency meeting for planning purposes was unnecessary.
“Having an emergency meeting for planning is a waste of time and a waste of money,” he said, adding that the Conservatives had suggested the work could be handled through a teleconference, allowing MPs to remain in their ridings.
“We are simply not going to play their partisan games,” Hawn said from Edmonton. “This is an issue that was not an emergency to handle before Christmas.”
“This is a planning meeting, not a meeting to hear witnesses,” he said.
Asked about opposition statements that they were unaware of the offer of a teleconference, Hawn said the option was discussed with the vice-chair of the committee.
“If they didn’t know about that, they need to talk amongst themselves,” he said.
Source | See also under Torture: Canada ‘defended’ torturer | Ottawa won’t release Afghan torture documents | RCMP had no grounds to use Taser on N.W.T. girl: report | Top general’s Afghan detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry | U.S. police taser 10-year-old | Richard Colvin’s Afghan torture memos reveal government concealed prisoner access issues | Torture claims unreliable, officials say, despite having found evidence of torture | MPs vote public inquiry into Afghan detainees, Tories ignore majority motion | Torture claims weren’t probed, official testified | Harper government changes tune on Afghan prisoner issue | Colvin’s testimony true: former Afghan MP | David Mulroney testifies war confused issue of torture | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | UK: Rights watchdog reveals Pakistani spies pressed by British to torture detainees | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Guantanamo won’t close by January: Obama | Israelis Want a Pain Ray of Their Own | UK soldier testifies comrades beat Iraqi to death | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | U.S. court denies Maher Arar’s appeal | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | U.S. artists slam use of music in Guantanamo interrogations | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; 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