HALIFAX — The Conservative government was aware from the first day it took office in 2006 that Taliban suspects, rounded up by Canadian soldiers, might be tortured in Afghan prisons, says Defence Minister Peter MacKay. The government then waited 15 months, until May 2007, before putting new safeguards in place to monitor the treatment of Afghan detainees. 
“I’m not suggesting that we have not heard serious allegations from the moment we took office. I’m not suggesting that prison conditions in Afghan jails are anything to behold,” said MacKay on Sunday, in response to reporters’ questions about allegations of torture and mistreatment of Taliban suspects, an issue that is expected to dominate Parliament this week. The country’s most senior soldier also revealed Sunday that Canada has more than once halted the transfer of Taliban captives to Afghan authorities — not merely once, in 2007, when the government formally changed its transfer system — but on other occasions, because of information about safety and legal concerns in Afghan jails.
“We indeed did stop transfers more than one time,” said Gen. Walter Natynczyk, standing beside MacKay in Halifax. Natynczyk refused to say when the other stoppages occurred, saying that information would emerge soon, from other witnesses testifying in Parliament. Canada would be in violation of international law, and its soldiers at risk of prosecution, if prisoners were tortured or beaten after being taken captive by the Canadian army. A series of high-level civil servants and military commanders, including retired chief of defence staff Rick Hillier, are expected to testify at a Parliamentary committee in the coming days on the enduring controversy around Canada’s handling of Afghan prisoners. Diplomat Richard Colvin, who now works at the Canadian Embassy in Washington but previously served at the embassy in Kabul, ignited a storm of controversy last week when he testified that all captives transferred by Canada to Afghan authorities were mistreated, and that his repeated warnings to Ottawa on the matter were ignored.
MacKay and other cabinet ministers have said they never saw Colvin’s warnings from 2006 and 2007. MacKay and other Conservative government members continued Sunday their campaign to discredit Colvin’s statements and raise doubts about his credibility. Colvin has been under sharp attack by government politicians now for five days, yet MacKay said Colvin shouldn’t take the criticism personally. “As far as his character, or impugning his integrity — that’s not what this was about,” MacKay said. “This is about an examination of very serious allegations, and evidence that would support those allegations. What we have heard thus far cannot be substantiated. “Not a single Taliban soldier turned over by Canadian forces can be proved to have been abused. That is the crux of the issue.” But MacKay also said his government has had enough concerns about poor human rights standards in the Afghan prison system that Canada has invested millions of dollars, and spent years training prison guards, in the hope of solving such problems. “Two and a half years ago we went about improving the situation,” he said. “It’s why we invested $132-million in various parts of that effort to improve it.”
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