Prisoner Torture? Depends on who you listen to.

It’s great to see Prime Minister Stephen Harper finally getting passionate about something in the House of Commons. It has become an all to familiar sight to see him stand in the House to respond to a question, button the suitcoat, and twist his head back and forth dismissing questions from the opposition as mere scare tactics for Canadians to chew on. It’s just too bad that the issue of prisoner torture in Afghanistan as the issue to get passionate about.

It’s not that I bemoan the PM for taking the issue seriously, I just wish his minister of defence took it half as seriously. It should be common knowledge that prisoners turned over to Afghan police are being tortured (not that it should be accepted, but the government was told about this gross human rights injustice over a year ago). When asked about it a couple of weeks ago, the “honorable” Gordon O’Connor said that the government would have to “cross it’s fingers and hope it doesn’t happen again.” Wow- what a statement to make about a blatant human right issue.

So, it’s about a week later and this issue has become a fire storm for the government. O’Connor stated last week that there are people in Afghanistan that are watching for these abuses, when in fact, there has been no ability on their part to do so. These people are not allowed into the jails where these alleged human rights abuses are taking place. Seriously, if there are human rights violations taking place in these jails, why would you let people watch?

Don’t get me wrong, I abhor even the impression that Canadian soldiers would hand over POW’s with the knowledge that they would be tortured by the Afghan police force. And I agree with the PM when he said that we cannot take these prisoners at their word 100 percent of the time, but for Christ’s sake, can’t we look into it?

Well, our minister of defence has said that he did look into it- and in fact, signed a transfer deal with the Afghan government saying that POW’s wouldn’t be tortured.....oh wait, there was no deal? Then why would he tell us that there was? Hmmm.....not informed much?

This government has made it a policy to not receive written briefings on such files in lieu of the oral type. What if your attention is diverted for a minute? You could possibly not hear a crucial piece of information which could turn into a serious problem for the government. And O’Connor is no spring chicken- he’s an older guy....wouldn’t it be better for him to sit in his office and, ohh I don’t know, be up to date on files, so the PM doesn’t have to stand in question period and directly contradict what his minister has already provided as fact (in his mind)?

Well, that’s what happened yesterday. The PM stood in Question Period amid cat calls, hoots and hollers and jeers from the other side and got pissed off (for lack of a better term) at the opposition for as he says, “enacting the Geneva Convention” for a group of prisoners that probably wouldn’t be forthcoming with the truth in the first place. He went on to directly contradict what his minister of defence testified to in the Common’s defence committee a couple of days earlier.

Now, I’m not an over the board, irrational acting person. However, I believe there may be some merit to the opposition’s calls for the resignation of this minister. He clearly does not have a grip on the files under his charge and that’s not acceptable in a time of war such as this.