Ujjal’s Going Rogue!

I must say, I’ve been really quite impressed with the work that Liberal National Defence Critic Ujjal Dosanjh has been churning out on the Canadian Afghan detainee transfer scandal. All too often, National Defence flies under the radar in Canadian politics, as we just don’t exert enough influence on the world stage to make Canada’s military posturing/decision-making particularly riveting both inside and outside the country. But this whole transfer scandal has really been cut from the juiciest cloth of political intrigue.

It seems pretty important both for Canada as a country and important in the issue’s own right that we pay attention and hold the Harper government to account for both its potential involvement in handing detainees over for torture  (or least knowing that this was a possibility and failing to do anything satisfactory to  address the situation) and for, frankly, an egregiously secretive and obstructionist response to the allegations once they surfaced. My own relatively moderate perspective on Harper et al. has been utterly blown out of the water on this issue and so I appreciate the consistent jabbing that the Opposition parties in general and Dosanjh in particular have been throwing on this issue (the Liberal Party’s responsibility for getting us into the mess of Afghanistan — for which, to be fair, Dosanjh was not present in any elected capacity — notwithstanding).

Dosanjh’s latest “ethical leaking” move via Twitter has garnered some attention, but it is at the end of the day a media stunt that won’t likely come to much. But for all its seeming recklessness, the gutsy-ness of the move speaks well of Dosanjh’s character and a chutzpah that is sorely needed in Canadian politics. One of the primary things you hear about Canadians is how polite we are, be it in matters of social grace or parliamentary inquiry. And yet I think deep down, Canadians yearn for a political figure who isn’t afraid to bloody noses when the situation calls for it. Such a willingness speaks to the mettle of some of Canada’s favourite political personages: Tommy Douglas, Pierre Trudeau, and, reaching back a ways, the original Canadian bad-ass, William Lyon MacKenzie.

I’m not comparing Ujjal Dosanjh to the likes of Douglas or Trudeau per se, but his demonstrated willingness to keep firing at the Harper Government by any means necessary (even the NDP, Canada’s so-called political black sheep, is backing away from Dosanjh’s proposal in its bid to tack towards the centre and be seen as “respectable”)  is from that same vein of political courage and ferocity. So more than anything, I’m all for that kind of pugilism and urge Dosanjh to keep at it.

Not the least of which because it has become increasingly evident that just these types of tactics have become necessary.

I decided to hold off on my blogging for a bit to see how events might unfold and, despite contrary testimony from David Mulroney and Rick Hillier, disturbing facts continue to pile up. The documents that the government had promised to release were, indeed, eventually released. But, not surprisingly, the contents have been so heavily redacted as to make them, to quote Stuart Hendin, an expert in the law of war and international-rights issues who represented now-retired Brigadier-General Serge Labbé, one of the most senior Canadian officers embroiled in the Somalia affair 16 years ago, “almost impossible for any independent authority to conduct a meaningful inquiry.” Following up, Hedin comments, “[i]t all suggests someone knew there were issues.”

Further, it seems that Arif Lalani, Canada’s former ambassador to Afghanistan, had, in 2007, asked Colvin, “to erase two bluntly worded sections from an April, 2007, report on how Ottawa’s delays in notifying the Red Cross of prisoner transfers to Afghan authorities left these detainees vulnerable to abuse,” as well as, seeking to “dramatically scale back the number of people in Foreign Affairs who would be e-mailed this same late April report on detainees – chopping the recipient list to about five from more than 70.”

An actual copy of Lalani’s edits to the report is available via the link at the Globe and Mail.

Additionally, a group of twenty-five ex-diplomats have come to Richard Colvin’s defence, criticizing the government for making personal attacks against Colvin’s credibility their first line of response and suggesting that Harper et al. have risked, “creating a climate in which officers may be more inclined to report what they believe headquarters wants to hear, rather than facts and perceptions deemed unpalatable.”

You can read their letter here.

And testimony by top Canadian commanders in Afghanistan in 2006 corroborates Colvin’s allegations about the hastiness with which the government sought to handle Afghan detainees, resulting in poor record-keeping and thereby raising the possibility that innocent detainees were turned over to be tortured.

At this point, as a Canadian, I can only say that the government of the day has completely lost my trust and confidence based on the evidence that has surfaced after a relatively constrained investigation, as well as government’s own role in attempting, at essentially every step of the way, to obstruct revelation of the truth. The current Government of Canada had displayed an utter disregard for transparency and accountability, precisely the kind of themes upon which they have consistently campaigned and to which they are, ironically, supposed to be ideologically committed.

In short, this government deserves no quarter and I’m glad that Dosanjh isn’t giving them any. At such a time when Liberals need to look among their ranks to seek out a suitable replacement to Ignatieff, who is mired in his own troubles, I’d suggest they take a good hard look at Dosanjh and the quality of his leadership on what I continue to see as the most important political issue to face Canadians in recent memory.

Tagged as: Afghan Detainee scandal, Canadian politics, David Mulroney, redacted documents, Richard Colvin, Rick Hillier, Stephen Harper