After a year in which opposition MPs cast aspersions on the character of our Canadian Armed Forces, you have to question what those parties’ real interest was in the issue of Canadian-transferred Taliban prisoners.
Our government recently tabled the results of a study of the redacted documents that pertained to Taliban prisoners. A year of study by a committee of Parliamentarians, and a review by an independent panel of arbiters, upheld the vast majority of the original redactions to the documents and found no credible allegations against members of Canada’s military.
After 12 months of review and over $12 million worth of taxpayers’ money, this exercise seems only to have proven the opposition parties – led by the NDP, who refused even to participate in the review of the documents – wanted just to politicize this issue for their own gain.
The opposition’s response to the tabling of the documents supports this argument. On the same day the House of Commons received the review, our government offered to brief all opposition MPs on the materials. Our officials were ready to explain the process and results of the $12-million exercise that opposition parties had forced on taxpayers. Yet, despite the reckless slandering of the Canadian Armed Forces by NDPers and Liberals, not a single MP from those parties bothered to attend the briefing.
One can only conclude that the facts of the review – namely, that no credible allegations against our military were found – didn’t line up with what they were hoping to hear.
This shameful lack of interest in the face of the facts suggests the real motivation for the opposition’s allegations of wrongdoing by Canada’s soldiers was to seek political gain.
Opposition members forced millions of dollars of spending on this issue and there is nothing to be gained by spending millions more, even though some on the opposition benches are now calling for another review. It is important to note the independent arbiters that headed the review panel were themselves retired Supreme Court justices.
Unlike the opposition parties, which have shown a lack of trust in our men and women in uniform, our government believed all along in the professionalism of the Canadian Armed Forces in relation to the transfer of Taliban detainees to Afghan forces.
Our Forces are serving our country in Afghanistan and putting their lives on the line every day on our behalf. Our government will support them.
