The Liberal Party's Double Standards on Disclosure

Blacked out documents for income trust investors: acceptable
Blacked out documents for Afghan detainees: wholly unacceptable

What gives with these Liberal Double Standards on the need for disclosure? Do the Liberals need sign-off from Power Corporation before they seek the truth about government policies and actions? Evidently so:

December 11, 2009

Liberals call for MacKay to bring unredacted documents to committee

OTTAWA – Liberals have just called for Defence Minister Peter MacKay and General Walter Natynczyk to appear before Parliament’s Afghanistan committee next week, and expect that the Minister will comply with the will of Parliament and bring the unedited documents surrounding the Afghan detainee controversy.

“We expect Mr. MacKay to obey the will of the Majority of MPs who voted in the House of Commons to have the government release all documentation – unredacted and unedited – so that we can properly determine exactly what the government knew about Afghan detainee transfers, and when,” said Liberal Defence Critic Ujjal Dosanjh.

Last night, the House of Commons passed a Liberal Opposition Day motion ordering the government to provide previously undisclosed and redacted documents to Parliamentarians for review, following the revelation by Chief of Defence Staff Walter Natynczyk that documentation conclusively proves it was known in 2006 that Canadian-transferred Afghan detainees were tortured.

“The Conservatives’ argument for refusing disclosure just doesn’t wash,” said Liberal MP Bryon Wilfert, Vice Chair of the Special Standing Committee on Afghanistan. “Parliament has the capacity to deal with sensitive information in a responsible manner, in a way that will not harm our national security or our soldiers on the ground. We are prepared to work out an arrangement that is mindful of national security.”

“The bottom line is that Stephen Harper can do this the respectful way and comply with a Parliamentary vote, or he can do it the hard way. Parliament has all of the tools it needs to enforce its orders and to obtain the information requested,” said Mr. Dosanjh.

Mr. Dosanjh said the secretive manner in which this government continues to operate – the cover-ups, hiding of evidence, contradictions, intimidation of witnesses and censoring of politically damaging documents – is why an independent public inquiry is needed.

“All you have to do is look at how other countries – the UK, the U.S., the Netherlands, New Zealand – have openly dealt with the issue of Afghan detainee transfers to see that this Conservative government stands alone in its refusal to be open and transparent,” he said.