The BCCLA National Security blog is posting from sunny Ottawa today, where we finished up the last of the MPCC witnesses until hearings resume again in mid-June. Carmen Cheung, Counsel at the BCCLA, has been attending the past week of … Read More
Features Blog
Brigadier-General Laroche: “We had evidence that detainees were abused and tortured”
Posted onToday, the Military Police Complaints Commission heard testimony from Brigadier-General Guy Laroche, Commander of the Task Force in Afghanistan from November 2007 to May 2008. As we mentioned yesterday, BGen Laroche was Commander in Afghanistan when detainee transfers were suspended in … Read More
This week at the MPCC
Posted onThe Afghanistan Public Interest Hearings at the Military Police Complaints Commission continue this week before a month-long break while the Commission waits for the government to make the required document disclosures. BCCLA Counsel Carmen Cheung is in Ottawa again this … Read More
CBSA laptop search documents
Posted onIn late February, shortly after the story we posted about the Canada Border Services Agency delaying our request for documents on their policies on searching laptops and other personal electronics, a slim brown envelope arrived in our office. The response … Read More
Databases: We’ll show you ours if you show us yours
Posted onThe Afghan detainee file has been taking up a lot of our time lately, but the BCCLA national security team hasn’t dropped the ball on other issues. One area we’ve been watching is transnational data sharing, especially between Canada and … Read More
Parliament: 1 / Government: 0
Posted onIn a precedent-setting decision this afternoon, House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken ruled that the government could be compelled to disclose to Parliament uncensored copies of documents relating to the transfer of Afghan detainees to risk of torture, and reaffirmed the … Read More
Meanwhile, back at the MPCC …
Posted onBusy day on the document disclosure front. Earlier, we recapped the goings-on in Parliament, in which the Speaker of the House of Commons ruled that government was in breach of parliamentary privilege by refusing to comply with the House’s order … Read More
“Good kid, non-radicalized and salvageable”
Posted onOmar Khadr heads off to pre-trial hearings this week, in preparation for his July trial by military commission. The Globe and Mail has an interview in today’s paper with Mr. Khadr’s Canadian civilian counsel Nathan Whitling, who reports, among other … Read More
MPCC hearings schedule update
Posted onAs promised, here’s what we know so far about the upcoming weeks. The subject witnesses, who were all scheduled to testify over the next three weeks, have been adjourned, pending further document disclosures and testimony from non-subject witnesses. From now … Read More
See you in September (?)
Posted onThe latest dust-up at the MPCC over document disclosure from the Department of Justice looks to derail the next few weeks of hearings. The hearings were initially scheduled to be concluded by May 12, but now could be delayed until … Read More
