THE AFGHAN MISSION: PRISONER TRANSFER
Defiant military watchdog widens inquiry
Report calls for hearings into alleged handover of detainees to torturers; top officers could be forced to testify
by PAUL KORING
Globe and Mail, October 1, 2008
The Harper government’s efforts to derail the independent inquiry into whether high-ranking Canadian Forces officers turned a blind eye to war crimes by turning detainees over to known Afghan torturers, were rejected yesterday by the Military Police Complaints Commission.
Overriding government objections, MPCC chairman Peter Tinsley’s 83-page decision, released yesterday, sets the stage for the most wide-ranging inquiry into the upper echelons of the Canadian military since the Somalia inquiry into the torture and murder of a defenceless teenager by elite Canadian troops in 1993.
“Despite all of the Attorney-General of Canada’s arguments to the contrary, the public interest requires an investigation,” Mr. Tinsley concludes.