Proroguing parliament to avoid answering questions about the government’s handling of Afghan detainees (2009)

On December 30, 2009, Prime Minister Harper once again asked the Governor General to prorogue the 40th session of Parliament, this time for the duration of the Winter Olympics.

The initial reason given for this prorogation was that there was a need to consult with Canadians on the economy, despite the fact that past governments have been able to work on the budget, consulting Canadians in the process, without shutting down Parliament. Harper and his MPs gave a number of other reasons in the ensuing weeks.

At the time of this second prorogation Parliament was far from concluding the business ahead of it. There were 36 bills still waiting to be dealt with. These bills died on the order paper. All parliamentary committees were dissolved, with their work unfinished.

Notably, the prorogation also shut down hearings investigating what government officials knew about the torture of Afghan detainees after they were handed over to the Afghan authorities by Canadian soldiers.

Why the Afghan detainee issue was the likely reason for the 2009 prorogation:

In early March of 2008, Peter Tinsley, Chair of the Military Policy Commission (MPCC), reported on the Commission’s decision to hold a public interest hearing on the Afghan detainee issue. This hearing would be able to compel witnesses to appear before the Commission with specific evidence and documents. In April of 2008, the government applied to the Federal Court in an attempt to prohibit the MPCC from holding the public interest hearings. After a year’s delay, the government sought to then indefinitely delay the proceedings; shortly after, the Court denied the government’s application.

By April of 2009, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission reported that over 98% of the 400 Afghan prisoners detained claimed to have been tortured (243 of these prisoners report being abused during the period 2006 to 2007).

Meanwhile, in April of 2009, the MPCC public interest hearing continued and Canadian diplomat, Richard Colvin, was called to testify. The government appealed to the Federal Court once again, this time in an attempt to have certain evidence barred at the MPCC hearing. The Federal Court once again denied the government’s application.

The hearing continued, though witnesses were getting pressure from the government to stay away, and by October of 2009, the witness with the greatest potential to contradict the government’s claim that it had not received credible reports of abuse of Afghan detainees appeared before the hearing. In an affidavit to the MPCC, Richard Colvin stated that he made repeated attempts to inform his superiors and the military about the abuse that Afghan prisoners experienced upon being handed over to Afghan authorities.

The MPCC hearings again got stalled by the federal government (in particular, the government failed to produce requested documents), but then Richard Colvin was called upon to testify at the House of Commons Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan.

Initially, National Defence Minister Peter Mackay denied having seen Mr. Colvin’s reports to the government on the Afghan situation. However, he later changed his story, claiming that when abuse became known, the government had changed its procedure for handling prisoners. General Walter Natynczyk, Chief of Defence, also denied knowledge of prisoner abuse and then recanted his story.

In early December of 2009, the opposition Liberals passed a motion in the House of Commons calling for the government to release unedited documents related to the Afghan detainee issue. Once again, there was obstruction, this time from Conservative MPs who did not show up to the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan. That effectively shut down the Committee prior to the Parliamentary break for the Christmas season.

However, the motion carried in the House compelling the government to produce documents and had the effect of putting Mr. Harper on notice that he was in danger of being found in contempt of Parliament for his refusal to provide the Afghan detainee documents. This was the text of the Committee’s report:

"That the Committee believes a serious breach of privilege has occurred and members’ rights have been violated, that the Government of Canada, particularly the Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, have intimidated a witness of this Committee, and obstructed and interfered with the Committee's work and with the papers requested by this Committee.

Therefore this Committee reports the breach to the House so that it can consider the matter. "

As had happened previously, as well as since, the government’s best defence was to stall, and on December 30, 2009, Prime Minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament once again, which had the effect of not only killing most of the 36 bills before the House of Commons, but also shutting down hearings such as the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan.

In spite of the prorogation, the Special Committee resumed its hearings on an informal basis but because Parliament was not convened it could not compel witnesses to officially appear before the Committee. In early March, when Parliament resumed, the government announced it was hiring former Supreme Court Judge Frank Iacobucci to determine whether releasing the Afghan detainee documents could pose a danger to national security.

Losing patience, the three opposition parties approached the Speaker of the House, with calls to compel the government to hand over the uncensored documents, or, in the alternative, to face parliamentary contempt proceedings.

On April 27, 2010, the House Speaker ruled that Parliament had a right to ask for the uncensored Afghan detainee documents. He ruled that all House leaders, ministers and MPs come to a collective solution by May 11, 2010.

By mid-June of 2010, a “Memorandum of Understanding” was tabled in the House of Commons but it did not receive unanimous agreement – the New Democrat Party declined to participate on the grounds that the process was too secretive.

Where is the issue today?

“The government has spent at least $1.6-million on a panel of three retired judges vetting thousands of secret documents at the centre of the detainee torture allegations in Afghanistan—but none of the censored information has yet been made public. “ (see: http://hilltimes.com/dailyupdate/view/77 )

Human rights lawyer Paul Champ believes that “it may take longer than the opposition realized to review and release the crucial documents.”

As for the public interest hearing of the Military Police Complaints Commission, Champ states that it could take even longer “for the Military Police Complaints Commission...to release a report, because the commission must release its report to the government first.” He points out that “The government can take its sweet time reviewing it, and I suspect that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” Mr. Champ told The Hill Times. “I don’t think that the commission’s final report is going to see the light of day for at least a year, and probably longer.”

Stephen Harper shut down Parliament to evade being accountable to the people's elected representatives. Further, his government has obfuscated and delayed the investigations of earnest Parliamentary committees.

Follow us on: