Richard Colvin

Federal Court tosses bid to limit final report into Afghan prisoner abuse

Topics: 
Richard Colvin, Afghanistan, Message control or 'spin'
Rating: 
4

Murray Brewster – September 29, 2011

The Conservative government has been dealt a major setback in its attempt to limit what a military watchdog puts in his final report on the handling of Afghanistan prisoners.

A Federal Court has dismissed an application that would, among other things, strike the testimony of diplomat-whistleblower Richard Colvin and block thousands of pages of documents from being used by the Military Police Complaints Commission.

National Security Whistleblowers

Topics: 
Whistleblowers, Foreign Affairs, CSIS & CSE, Richard Colvin, Afghanistan, National security
Rating: 
0

June 16, 2011

Canadian security agents have come forward in the past in hope of exposing significant wrongdoing.

The Unknown Soldier

A Joint Task Force 2 soldier raised allegations in 2006 that Canada's most elite unit may have been complicit in war crimes in Afghanistan. The complaint, never verified, has led to a sweeping and ultra-secretive internal military probe known as Operation Sand Trap. The soldier, whose identity has never been revealed, no longer serves with JTF2.

The detainees file appears lost in the fog of committee

Topics: 
Richard Colvin, Afghanistan
Rating: 
0

Lawrence Martin – November 16, 2010

Remember the Afghan detainees’ controversy? You might not because the Liberals, who had the government cornered on this explosive file, have let it fade from public view.

The dispute over the question of whether the government knowingly allowed war captives to be tortured by Afghan authorities is an issue that has visited more embarrassments on the Conservatives than perhaps any other.

Afghan document deal hides the truth

Topics: 
Richard Colvin, Afghanistan
Rating: 
0

Secrecy – and Conservatives – win on prisoner abuse agreement

James Travers – June 17, 2010

Speaking truth to power takes more courage than most civil servants can muster. Diplomat Richard Colvin found that courage and is now discovering another durable reality: Politicians are afraid to listen to what Canadians don’t want to hear.

This week’s agreement allowing limited review of Afghanistan prisoner abuse documents is a triumph of expediency and secrecy over discipline and transparency. Chances are between slim and none that the country will ever be certain about what Stephen Harper and his ministers knew about what Afghans were doing to Afghans first captured by Canadians.

DND wanted whistleblower dismissed: lawyer

Topics: 
Richard Colvin
Rating: 
0

The Canadian Press – June 15, 2010

OTTAWA — Richard Colvin's lawyer says there was a "shoot the messenger" mentality at Canada's overseas command when it came to the diplomat's persistent warnings of possible torture in Afghan jails.

Owen Rees says military officers and civilian defence staff just didn't want to hear it and pointed to a toughly worded memo which recommended the whistleblower be removed from his post as No. 2 at the embassy in Kabul.

Professors want probe of detainee case lawyer

Topics: 
Justice Department, Richard Colvin, Afghanistan, Audio
Rating: 
5
Alain Prefontaine
Alain Préfontaine

CBC News – May 14, 2010

A group of professors is urging Ontario's law society to investigate allegations that the federal government's lead counsel at hearings into the handling of Afghan detainees is in a conflict of interest.

The allegations refer to Alain Préfontaine, the senior counsel and director general in the Department of Justice.

"At this writing, Mr. Préfontaine is making ongoing, almost weekly appearances before the [Military Police Complaints Commission], and the conduct complained of is profoundly corrosive to the administration of justice," the five professors write in a letter to the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Afghan secret police chief fired over torture of detainee, top soldier testifies

Topics: 
Richard Colvin, Afghanistan
Rating: 
5

Juliet O'Neill and Mike De Souza – May 11, 2010

OTTAWA - The firing of the "head honcho" of the Afghan secret police at a prison in Kandahar confirmed the allegations of torture that a Canadian-transferred detainee made on Nov. 5, 2007, to Foreign Affairs monitors, Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche testified Tuesday.

Laroche, then commander of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, said the dismissal and transfer to Kabul of the head of the National Directorate of Security at the unnamed detention facility after an internal investigation "was probably due to the fact that the allegations were founded or at least partially founded."

Federal lawyer may have broken conduct rules: MP

Topics: 
Justice Department, Richard Colvin, Afghanistan
Rating: 
5

James Cudmore, CBC News – April 21, 2010

The federal government's lead counsel at hearings into the handling of Afghan detainees is alleged to have broken the rules that govern lawyers in Ontario.

Alain Prefontaine should be investigated by Ontario's law society for an apparent conflict of interest, says lawyer and Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh.

Was Afghan torture a deliberate tool for Canada?

Topics: 
Richard Colvin, Afghanistan
Rating: 
5

Thomas Walkom – April 17, 2009

The most stunning news out of Ottawa this week has nothing to do with embattled MP Helena Guergis. Rather, it is the testimony of former army translator Ahmadshah Malgarai alleging that Canadian intelligence officers in Afghanistan deliberately sent recalcitrant prisoners to be interrogated under torture by that country’s secret police.

Richard Colvin's Catch-22

Topics: 
Justice Department, Richard Colvin, Afghanistan
Rating: 
5

Steven Chase – April 14, 2010

Franz Kafka would have been proud to have penned an episode from Tuesday's Afghan detainee hearings where the government sought to undermine testimony from one of its own civil servants.

The catch, for the civil servant, is he can't talk about information the government has censored. Even if it could vindicate him.

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