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OTTAWA — A Conservative MP spoke for three hours at a Commons committee Thursday in an apparent attempt to prevent an investigation into why Foreign Affairs officials censored documents about the abuse and torture of Afghan detainees.
Mike Wallace regaled fellow members of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics with details of the federal Access to Information Act for the duration of his address.
His lengthy discourse in a hot room of Parliament's West Block stalled an opposition motion that the committee examine the editing of documents showing that the Harper government knew prisoners held by Afghan security forces faced the possibility of torture, abuse and extra-judicial killing.
“I think that the Conservatives tried to avoid this motion and they put so much resources and time [into it] that they have something to hide,” said Bloc Québécois MP Carole Lavallée, who put forth the motion.
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Pat Martin, a New Democrat from Manitoba, said “it just reconfirms our suspicions that information was redacted to save embarrassment to the government, not for any issues of national security.”
Opposition members are in the majority on the committee. And when Mr. Wallace finally gave the floor over to his colleague David Tilson, the vote was called and it passed handily.
Mr. Wallace denied that his speech was a filibuster, arguing instead that he was merely debating Ms. Lavallée's motion.
“It's an important topic and I think it's important for our committee members to understand what the act says and have a discussion,” he said.
Foreign Affairs officials originally denied the existence of the documents pertaining to the treatment of Afghan detainees that had been requested under the federal Access to Information law.
A version of the Foreign Affairs report titled Afghanistan-2006; Good Governance, Democratic Development and Human Rights was eventually released after complaints to the Information Commissioner. But the government had eradicated every single reference to torture and abuse in prison.
Among the sentences blacked out in the report's summary is “Extra judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common,” according to full passages of the report obtained independently by The Globe and Mail.
Mr. Wallace had entered his own motion that would have delayed any inquiry into the withholding and censoring of the document until after the Information Commissioner completed his own investigation of the affair — an analysis requested by the parties who sought the documents under the access law.
That motion was defeated. Mr. Martin explained that the Information Commissioner could offer no guarantees about when his investigation would be conducted and has no obligation to tell provide details about the investigation beyond the final outcome.
For a while it seemed Mr. Wallace was prepared to continue his delaying tactics until the opposition gave up and went home. And it was something of a surprise when his speech came to an abrupt end shortly after reporters entered the room.
Opposition observers said it was apparent that the Conservatives simply had no end game.
Committee Chairman Tom Wappel, a Liberal, said he was approached by a member of the Conservative Whip's office who said they were planning to continue the discussion until the daily Question Period when the Tories assumed the committee would be adjourned. But Mr. Wappel told the committee he had no intention of calling a break before the matter was settled.
“It was obvious that the opposition intended to dig in and stay as long as the government did,” he said, “and the government just did not have the numbers.”
The delay tactics at the committee yesterday follow the cancellation of the Commons official languages committee Wednesday where the topic of debate was to have been the Conservative government's cuts to a program that helped fund challenges to discrimination.
