Canadian Afghan detainee issue

The Canadian Afghan detainee issue concerns Government of Canada or the Canadian Forces (CF) knowledge of abusive treatment of detainees in Afghanistan. The abuse occurred after Afghans were detained by Canadian Forces, and subsequently transferred to the Afghan National Army (ANA) or the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) during the War in Afghanistan. The issue has sparked heated debate since Article 12 of the Third Geneva Convention (of which Canada is a signatory) states that "the Detaining Power [Canada] is responsible for the treatment given [to prisoners of war]". If the allegations of torture are true it would mean Canada is guilty of war crimes.^[1]

The allegations were first sparked by University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran, who claimed that full versions of government documents proved Canada had willful knowledge that torture would occur before handing detainees to Afghan authorities.^[2] Subsequent to this, two official complaints have led to official investigations and hearings by the Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC). One of these unveiled parliamentary testimony by diplomat Richard Colvin, who claimed that many detainees were probably tortured, and it was a standard operating procedure for Afghan interrogators.^[3] The allegations have led to a showdown in the House of Commons of Canada, as opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) had called for the releasing of relevant documents in full and unredacted form, claiming parliamentary privilege to see them. The government maintained that they had a duty to protect Canadian soldiers and citizens as the documents contained sensitive information.

At the request of the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, a panel of former justices and selected MPs was tasked with sorting through the documents, and determining the need to release or withhold them. To date, only about 4,000 out of the estimated 40,000 documents have been released,^[4] A final report released in June 2012 found no wrongdoing by Canadian Forces members, but did issue recommendations related to improving military policing and MPCC access to information and witnesses. The Canadian public generally held views that there was knowledge of detainee abuse by military or government officials. The issue has also led to scrutiny on detainee treatment by other Canadian departments and the armed forces of other nations.