Diplomat-whistleblower says he faces government retaliation

By Murray Brewster (CP) – January 25, 2010

Richard Colvin

OTTAWA — A lawyer for the whistle-blower in the Afghan detainee issue says Richard Colvin has a "reasonable belief" that the Conservative government is retaliating against him for his damaging torture testimony late last year.

Colvin's Toronto lawyer, Owen Rees, makes the accusation in a letter sent to the Military Police Complaints Commission on Monday.

Rees says the government has essentially stopped paying Colvin's legal bills since November, when the diplomat told a Commons committee that several senior government officials were aware that Canadian Forces in Afghanistan were handing over detainees to be tortured by Afghan authorities in 2006.

"Coupled with the government's public attacks on Mr. Colvin and his testimony before the special committee on the Canadian mission in Afghanistan . . . our client is left with the reasonable belief that the denial of legal indemnification is a reprisal for his participation before the committee and the commission," the letter says.

The latest Colvin development comes with Parliament suspended until March, leaving opposition MPs without their usual forum to tackle the issue. The opposition has accused Prime Minister Stephen Harper of proroguing Parliament to stifle the whole Afghan detainee issue.

Colvin is entitled to legal representations as a federal civil servant who was summoned to testify about his work in Afghanistan. The government agreed to provide some funding for independent counsel after his original lawyer argued in the months prior to his testimony that the Justice Department could not represent parties on both sides of the dispute, given the risk of a conflict of interest.

But the Conservative government has not agreed to any additional funding despite the ongoing Military Police Complaints Commission investigation. Colvin's testimony before the committee led to public attacks on his credibility by Defence Minister Peter MacKay and former top military generals. Those attacks prompted Colvin to submit a 16-page letter to the MPCC in December defending himself and disputing their version of events.

On Nov. 27, about a week after his testimony, Colvin asked for additional legal funding but has yet to receive a reply.

"The government of Canada has failed to even respond to our client's request," Rees wrote. "This is a matter of grave concern for Mr. Colvin".

Without legal representation, Rees said, it would be difficult for Colvin to continue to testify before the commission.

"The government of Canada's inaction in this regard is impeding our client's ability to participate as a witness before the commission with the assistance of legal counsel, which is appropriate and necessary given the complexity of the legal issues raised, including the government's claims of national security confidentiality," he wrote.

Colvin set off a political storm in November when he told the parliamentary committee that Canada failed to monitor detainee conditions in Afghanistan when he was deputy ambassador there from April 2006 to October 2007. Detainees transferred by Canadian soldiers to Afghan prisons were likely tortured, he added.

"According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured," Colvin said. "For interrogators in Kandahar, it was a standard operating procedure."

The government has denied Colvin's allegations.

"There are incredible holes in the story that have to be examined," MacKay told the Commons, rejecting calls for a public inquiry.