Hockey day in Kandahar; Former NHLers defeat Canadian soldiers in a morale-boosting ball hockey game

It was supposed to be an exercise in boosting morale, but you wouldn't know it from the score.

Tiger Williams threw some playful punches and Ron Tugnutt nursed an iced cappuccino between the pipes yesterday as a group of former National Hockey League heroes manhandled their Canadian Forces counterparts 7-1 in a friendly but hard-fought game of ball hockey.

No less a hockey icon than the Stanley Cup stood sentry over the proceedings from a shaded stoop nearby as Team Canada took on a badly outmatched Team Task Force in front of more than 100 Canadian and coalition soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.

Down by several goals, Cpl. Mike Loder of the 2nd Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., tried to rally his troops by getting into a scuffle with Williams, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy who's never shied away from a fight.

"I knew he was one of the harder Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play the game, and one of my definite idols,'' a beaming Loder said afterwards, dripping with sweat under the typically oppressive Afghanistan sun.

"As we were picking at each other, I kind of figured he wanted to go for a little brawl.''

The fight, such as it was -- and Tiger wasn't pulling his punches, Loder said -- was no less one-sided than the game.

"He made more contact than me, I think,'' Loder grinned. "This is Tiger -- he'd really do it. That's good, though.''

For his part, a tongue-in-cheek Williams was less than apologetic.

"You ever heard of a camel fly? They bite you in the face . . . I was just trying to wipe it off, but he didn't realize I was coming to his aid,'' he said as he signed autographs and posed for photos with fans.

"It's OK. He's young, he'll learn as things go on. But he's battle-ready, I'll tell you that.''

====

Hockey day in Kandahar; Former NHL stars whip Canadian Forces 7-1 in friendly match

It was supposed to be an exercise in boosting morale, but you wouldn't know it from the score.

Tiger Williams threw some playful punches and Ron Tugnutt nursed an iced cappuccino between the pipes yesterday as a group of former NHL players manhandled their Canadian Forces counterparts 7-1 in a friendly but hard-fought game of ball hockey.

No less a hockey icon than the Stanley Cup stood sentry over the proceedings from a shaded stoop nearby as Team Canada took on a badly outmatched Team Task Force in front of more than 100 Canadian and coalition soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.

Down by several goals, Cpl. Mike Loder of the second Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Grand Falls -Windsor, N.L., tried to rally his troops by getting into a scuffle with Williams, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy who's never shied away from a fight.

"I knew he was one of the harder Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play the game, and one of my definite idols," a beaming Loder said afterwards, dripping with sweat .

"As we were picking at each other, I kind of figured he wanted to go for a little brawl."

The fight, such as it was - and Tiger wasn't pulling his punches, Loder said - was no less one-sided than the game.

"He made more contact than me, I think," Loder grinned. "This is Tiger - he'd really do it. That's good, though."

For his part, a tongue-in-cheek Williams was less than apologetic.

"You ever heard of a camel fly? They bite you in the face ... I was just trying to wipe it off, but he didn't realize I was coming to his aid," he said .

And so untested was Tugnutt, the former goaltender for the defunct Quebec Nordiques, that he placed an order for an iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons that was delivered to his net midway through the third period.

====

Base boss gets Afghan 'break'; Commander will return to CFB Kingston after year-long mission

Meet Col. Charles (Spike) Hazleton, future base commander of CFB Kingston.

You've read that correctly. Hazleton, the current base commander, will also be the future base commander.

On July 31, he will give up his command to start training for a nine-month mission in Afghanistan. Lt.-Col. Dave McLeod, the current deputy base commander, will take over for a year.

When Hazleton's tour of duty in Afghanistan is up, he will come back to resume command of the base.

And that's a promise.

"I want to come back to finish the things I want to do here," Hazleton said yesterday.

"When I got the phone call [to go to Afghanistan], my first reaction was that I loved this job," said Hazleton, the current United Way chair. "This is something I'm passionate about. Interestingly, just before that, I was talking to [my boss] Brig.-Gen. Guy Thibault about staying on as base commander for three years and he was not adverse to it."

Hazleton took command of the base barely a year ago from Col. Larry Aitken, who is now in the Congo. Typically, a base commander stays at the job for two to three years.

Hazleton, his wife, Katherine, and their children, Charlie and Olivia, also love Kingston. That love was reciprocated when he was asked to lead the United Way campaign only months after he became the base commander.

Hazleton's father, Charles, now retired and living on Vancouver Island, was a colonel in the air force. His mother, Sally, was a teletypist in the military.

Hazleton will be in Afghanistan at a time when Canada will be the "lead nation" in the southwestern region of the country, starting in February 2008. Maj.-Gen. Marc Lessard will be the commander and Hazleton will be in charge of operations.

Hazleton believes he can continue as United Way chair in the fall because much of his training for Afghanistan will be done in Kingston.

"Right after the Labour Day weekend, 70 to 80 of us will be in Kingston to do our training: weapons, first-aid, drills and navigation, those sorts of things."

At the same time, people will be in training at the signals regiment.

"We will have up to 160 people training here starting in September," Hazleton said. "It'll be an exciting time. That's a reflection of Kingston that a lot of things are going on here."

Hazleton graduated from the University of Regina and joined the military in 1981. He has served overseas in Germany, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Australia, Cambodia and Bosnia.

jack@thewhig.com

====

Voice of the people

The Nova Scotia Conservative government is making a huge deal about the retirement benefit requested by NSGEU Local 22, saying the government cannot afford it. This benefit has already been part of contracts with 10,000 teachers, 5,700 civil servants, and over 3,000 health-care workers at Capital District Health Authority. Is it because the NSGEU Local 22 encompasses only 600 employees?

The government is complaining of the cost; maybe they should have thought it through before agreeing to the same retirement benefits for almost 20,000 other public employees. I realize this takes money out of the government budget, but this is an issue of pay/benefit equity.

Trudy Hennigar, Kennetcook

I am writing about the statements made by Health Minister Chris d'Entremont concerning the millions of dollars it will cost to fund the pension demands of heath-care workers at the IWK hospital. I am not saying that the minister is not telling the truth about these costs, but only wondering where he was when members of the legislature recieved a salary increase and, I assume, a subsequent pension increase in excess of 20 per cent?

Why did he not raise concerns at that time about increasing pension liability, or did he assume that MLAs' salaries and pensions, like manna, continue to fall from the heavens and are not the responsibility of the same taxpayer he is apparently now so concerned about?

I think taxpayers are at a point now where we can no longer continue to cave in to politicians' apparently insatiable demands on the public purse.

Victor Jordan, Barss Corner

Health Minister Chris d'Entremont somehow forecast what would happen if those hospital workers were recognized. Some realists, using a simple calculator, estimated the implementation cost at $2 million and $300,000 annually thereafter. Where are the money trees to pay what is just and fair?

I feel that, in compassion for all Nova Scotians, the cabinet ministers should happily forgo the massive amounts they receive to pay for their luxury cars and simply drive their own cars, getting mileage. Then if only those who really needed Halifax apartments agreed to basic shelter, rather than living in luxury that would make Donald Trump salivate, those steps would be a beginning to common sense.

Another item that grabbed my attention in the news was a property in Pictou County that was valued at over $2.5 million. It was assessed at $523,000. That is less than 25 per cent of its value. How many more property owners are getting away with not paying what they should?

The people who manipulate this screwy system know how to pay what is just. The IWK workers and others may have to wait a long time before they will concede voluntarily.

Lorne Perry, Dartmouth

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore should stop giving environment lectures here in Canada. He and his fellow politicians have done little or nothing to clean up their own acts.

He should go back to the United States, and take Liberal done-nothing Stephane Dion and NDP talk-a-lot Jack Layton with him. Bob Ritchie, Wolfville

Interesting to read (May 1 story) Coun. Dawn Sloane was hesitant to offer an opinion on the latest Medjuck proposal because she was still waiting to hear back from her constituents. Now there's leadership.

Gregg Yeadon, HRM

I disagree with the letter by Anthony Manning (April 30) regarding wood-burning appliances and outdoor fire pits. Outdoor fire pits are a way of life, period. Since time began, there have been fires burned for necessities and recreation. I can't believe there is a family that hasn't enjoyed an outdoor fire with hotdogs and marshmallows. Stir a fire, watch it crackle, cuddle with my wife and kids by it. Even my old dog lies near its warmth. There's magic in it.

Do wood-burning devices, whether indoors or out, smell worse than oil-burning devices? Should we ban these appliances because someone thinks burning maple smells bad or some asthma sufferer may have a bad day? Should we not ban all growing things to help relieve allergy sufferers? Stop mowing grass because someone doesn't like the smell of the clippings?

Smell smoke all summer? Are you talking about one Saturday night a week? Weather permitting? You want protection from it? Buy an air purifier. I open my window to get a whiff of it.

An environmental hazard? If my burning a few sticks of wood for recreational purposes, while I get closer to my family, is an environmental hazard, then I'm guilty as charged. However, I can assure you there are far worse hazards out there. If the environmentalists would only look at the three big stacks on the Dartmouth side of the harbour, they would see electricity is no better, either. HRM has better things to do than deal with petty issues.

Floyd K. Blakeney, Beaver Bank

During the CBC Radio broadcast from the floor of the Liberal leadership convention last Saturday, one reporter commented that many delegates told him they voted for Diana Whalen because she's a female.

Not only is that a poor reason for voting for any delegate or (would-be) politician, it's an insult to the many female politicians who got re-elected multiple times by their constituents. Not all the people who voted for them were female! Those who did presumably thought their incumbent did a good job of representing them. Candidates for public office won't get elected simply because of gender, but for having some knowledge of the issues that matter to voters and fresh ideas on how to address them.

Would you not vote for the other candidate just because he's a man? That's what I've been wondering ever since I heard what these delegates had to say.

S.M. Baker, Dartmouth

I would like to thank The Chronicle Herald for its ongoing series on Afghanistan by Christian Laforce and Chris Lambie. It's great to see the Canadian Forces being represented positively instead of the usual daily bludgeoning of "doom and gloom/the sky is falling" pessimism.

In particular, the articles "All about the money" and "Defusing danger with rare mindset" held special interest for me. I was in Afghanistan in 2004 and recently completed two years in Iraq as a civilian bomb-disposal contractor, and can attest that those articles were absolutely on target.

I spent a thousand years (no mistake), 1965-1991, in the Army That Never Was; so as an ex-soldier, I thank the men and women in Afghanistan for the way they are handling such a complex mission. From a cold start, you have adapted fast and are performing brilliantly. This mission, along with its obvious operational requirement, also has a very large political component and I don't envy you having to fight and survive with a bureaucrat under each arm! You have put Canada back on the top shelf where it belongs, and no amount of gratitude is enough.

Roger Gumbrill, Dartmouth

Re: "This enemy has four legs …" (April 28). In reading this article, the first thing that came to mind is: What on earth are Canadian soldiers doing in Afghanistan besides making fools of themselves and giving Canada a black eye?

Imagine how you would feel if someone came into your backyard and shot your dog because it barked at the intruder. The Afghan dogs perform important functions, such as being pets, guard dogs and hunters. Canada is trying to help to bring the Afghan people from a medieval mindset/culture to that of the Western world. This ain't gonna happen in our lifetime. Better bring the troops home.

Joe Palaschuk, Judique

Ralph Surette makes all the right points about aquaculture development in Nova Scotia (April 28 column). The case is no different in New Brunswick, where just under 100 salmon sites are now approved. For several years, I have been tracking levels of sulphide gas in the sediments under these farms. Compared to N.B. salmon farms, the fish farm in Port Mouton Bay is among the worst performers I've seen. The sulphides are close to or at the anoxic level, which means the sediments below are a dead zone. It is irresponsible for the Nova Scotia government to allow the same company to set up a bigger operation in the same bay, knowing the effects of the current operation.

This year, DFO will impose a new threshold for sulphides (3,500 um) on aquaculture operations, over which they will deem a harmful alteration, degradation or destruction (HADD) of fish habitat has occurred. Without a HADD authorization by the minister of fisheries, a fish farm with sulphide concentrations greater than this will be in violation of the Fisheries Act. The Port Mouton site has been consistently over that level, even as high as 7,000. DFO is now carrying out an environmental assessment of the new site proposed in the bay. Until they get the existing site under control, no approvals for a new site should be issued.

Janice Harvey, Conservation

Council of New Brunswick

====

Ex-NHLers win battle; Former stars topple Canadian soldiers 7-1 in ball hockey game

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - It was supposed to be an exercise in boosting morale, but you wouldn't know it from the score.

Tiger Williams threw some playful punches and Ron Tugnutt nursed an iced cappuccino between the pipes Thursday as a group of former NHL heroes manhandled their Canadian Forces counterparts 7-1 in a friendly but hard-fought game of ball hockey.

No less a hockey icon than the Stanley Cup stood sentry over the proceedings from a shaded stoop nearby as Team Canada took on a badly outmatched Team Task Force in front of more than 100 Canadian and coalition soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.

Down by several goals, Cpl. Mike Loder of the 2nd Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., tried to rally his troops by getting into a scuffle with Williams, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy who's never shied away from a fight.

"I knew he was one of the harder Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play the game, and one of my definite idols," a beaming Loder said afterwards, dripping with sweat under the typically oppressive Afghanistan sun.

"As we were picking at each other, I kind of figured he wanted to go for a little brawl."

The fight, such as it was - and Tiger wasn't pulling his punches, Loder said - was no less one-sided than the game.

"He made more contact than me, I think," Loder grinned. "This is Tiger - he'd really do it. That's good, though."

For his part, a tongue-in-cheek Williams was less than apologetic.

"You ever heard of a camel fly? They bite you in the face . . . I was just trying to wipe it off, but he didn't realize I was coming to his aid," he said as he signed autographs and posed for photos with fans.

"It's OK. He's young, he'll learn as things go on. But he's battle-ready, I'll tell you that."

Between his shifts, former Toronto Maple Leafs defender Dave Hutchinson provided a running play-by-play commentary for blind singer-songwriter Terry Kelly of Dartmouth, who sang the national anthem.

And so untested was Tugnutt, the former goaltender for the defunct Quebec Nordiques, that he placed an order for an iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons that was delivered to his net midway through the third period.

Mark Napier, a two-time Stanley Cup winner who scored 235 goals with four different teams during his 11-year NHL career, conceded the teams weren't very evenly matched. But he said the experience of visiting Afghanistan has been one he's never likely to forget.

"Back home in Canada, you hear so many negative things about the military, and now you get here and find out it's not even close to what's portrayed back home," Napier said.

"I'm so proud of being a Canadian and of what this military does, and how good they are."

Williams, who is on his second visit to Afghanistan, appeared to get a little emotional when he talked about the sacrifices Canada's soldiers are making - and about what he considers a shortage of support from the home front.

"You don't have to agree with what's going on, but you do have to support them, because they're our soldiers and we all should be very proud of them," he said.

"To see the conditions that they have to put up with every day, the heat and the dust, never mind all the stuff that you could come home in a bag . . . it's tough. It's a tough deal."

Napier cited the example of the reconstruction work on schools and hospitals that Canadians are doing in Afghanistan.

He noted that only 40,000 children were attending school before the soldiers arrived, and now there are more than 500,000 - 40 per cent of them girls.

He rejected praise that the former NHLers had sacrificed much in coming to Afghanistan to put up with the oppressive heat and difficult conditions - noting those are things the soldiers put up with on a daily basis.

"I've never played in anything this hot," he said. "I've never had so much fun, either."

'I'm so proud of being a Canadian and of what this military does, and how good they are.'

====

Newfoundland soldier scuffles with Leafs' legend Williams; Former NHLers beat soldiers in ball hockey game in Kandahar

It was supposed to be an exercise in boosting morale, but you wouldn't know it from the score.

Tiger Williams threw some playful punches and Ron Tugnutt nursed an iced cappuccino between the pipes Thursday as a group of former NHL heroes manhandled their Canadian Forces counterparts 7-1 in a friendly but hard-fought game of ball hockey.

No less a hockey icon than the Stanley Cup stood sentry over the proceedings from a shaded stoop nearby as Team Canada took on a badly outmatched Team Task Force in front of more than 100 Canadian and coalition soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.

Down by several goals, Cpl. Mike Loder of the 2nd Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Grand Falls-Windsor, tried to rally his troops by getting into a scuffle with Williams, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy who's never shied away from a fight.

"I knew he was one of the harder Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play the game, and one of my definite idols," a beaming Loder said afterwards, dripping with sweat under the typically oppressive Afghanistan sun.

"As we were picking at each other, I kind of figured he wanted to go for a little brawl."

The fight, such as it was - and Tiger wasn't pulling his punches, Loder said - was no less one-sided than the game.

"He made more contact than me, I think," Loder grinned. "This is Tiger - he'd really do it. That's good, though."

For his part, a tongue-in-cheek Williams was less than apologetic.

"You ever heard of a camel fly? They bite you in the face ... I was just trying to wipe it off, but he didn't realize I was coming to his aid," he said as he signed autographs and posed for photos with fans.

"It's OK. He's young, he'll learn as things go on. But he's battle-ready, I'll tell you that."

Between his shifts, former Toronto Maple Leafs defender Dave Hutchinson provided a running play-by-play commentary for native Newfoundlander Terry Kelly, a blind singer-songwriter who sang the national anthem.

And so untested was Tugnutt, the former goaltender for the defunct Quebec Nordiques, that he placed an order for an iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons that was delivered to his net midway through the third period.

Canada's top soldier, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, had been talking about suiting up and doing battle on a line with Williams and another well-known tough guy, former Detroit Red Wings forward Bob Probert.

But even though he was kitted out in a Team Task Force jersey with his name on the back, Hillier opted to settle for dropping the ball during the ceremonial opening faceoff.

"We got a whole bunch of young men here - it's all men on our Task Force Afghanistan team - this is the experience of their lives to be playing the NHL players, their sports heroes, and I didn't want to take even a second away from them doing that," Hillier said.

"I'm quite content to watch here - I've got my sweater on, as you can see - and they know which team I'm cheering for."

====

Abuse of detainee reported to military

OTTAWA -- Afghan police beat up a prisoner given to them by the Canadian Forces, according to the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghanistan which emerged Thursday in documents filed in the Federal Court.

Col. Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in a sworn affidavit filed with the court as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop all further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

Noonan's disclosure comes after repeated denials by the Conservative government that it had no specific examples that any detainee transferred by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities was later subject to abuse or torture. The detainee issue has mushroomed into a major political problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several of his Conservative cabinet ministers.

Harper continued Thursday to dismiss allegations of prisoner abuse and blamed his political opponents for making it an issue.

"This is based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners and I think, quite frankly, it has detracted unnecessarily from the good work Canadian men and women are doing in the field in Afghanistan under dangerous circumstances," the prime minister told a news conference in Mission, B.C.

But court documents, including a transcript of Noonan's cross-examination earlier this week, already filed in Federal Court revealed that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

"In this case, the CF learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP," Noonan said in his affidavit, using the acronym for Afghan national police. "When we learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them."

The Afghans turned the prisoner over to the Canadians who then gave him to provincial Afghan police authorities.

When Amnesty lawyer Paul Champ tried to get more details on the incident -- when it happened, what injuries were sustained, whether the Afghan police were charged -- federal lawyer J. Sanderson Graham shut down all further questioning of the incident citing "national security" interests.

"It threatens Canada's national security to know when the Canadian Forces observed local Afghan national police beating a detainee that they transferred to that unit?" Champ asked.

"We object to any questions on this incident generally," Graham replied.

Citing reports by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, Amnesty and the civil liberties association have charged that detainees transferred by Canada to the Afghans are subject to torture in its prisons, and that the transfers should be halted.

They also question why the military does not build its own prison camps for detainees.

In a surprise twist, Thursday's hearing was adjourned because court was told that the Canadian and Afghanistan governments had signed a revision of their prisoner transfer agreement earlier that morning.

Justice Michael Kelen announced the key details of the agreement that expands on the controversial December 2005 deal originally signed by Canada and Afghanistan.

Under Thursday's amended deal, Canadian officials will be granted unrestricted access to all Afghan prisons, where its prisoners are transferred, and they will be able to conduct private interviews with prisoners away from the eyes of their Afghan jailers.

"What happened this morning is a major development; it probably wouldn't have happened if this court case wasn't happening," Kelen said from the bench before adjourning the hearing.

====

Canada inks new prisoner-transfer deal in Kabul; Rewritten agreement won't stop abuse, critics say

OTTAWA - Canada has signed a rewritten prisoner-transfer agreement with Afghan authorities amid a raging controversy over the alleged torture of some detainees.

But critics say it won't prevent abuse and they want the Conservative government to do more.

The deal, inked early Thursday in Kabul, came just before a Federal Court judge was set to hear arguments in

Ottawa for an interim injunction banning the transfer of detainees.

The new arrangement allows Canadian officials greater access to insurgents turned over to the Afghans by Canadian soldiers. Among its provisions is a guarantee that captured fighters can be interviewed in private without the intimidating presence of their Afghan jailers.

The government negotiated the deal despite insisting that the allegations of torture are false. The Conservatives hope it will put an end to two weeks of bad press over their confusing and contradictory statements on the detainee issue.

"What we have done is enhance the 2005 agreement -- that is exactly what people were calling for," said Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

But Amnesty International, which launched the Federal Court challenge on behalf of detainees, said the new deal isn't good enough. "Canada is still not complying with its international obligations," said spokesman Alex Neve.

"This agreement does not sufficiently protect people from the risk of torture after being transferred and that's the bottom line."

Meanwhile, documents filed in the Federal Court on Thursday, indicated Afghan police beat up a prisoner given to them by the Canadian Forces, the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghan authorities.

Col. Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in a sworn affidavit filed with the court as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop all further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

But court documents, including a transcript of Noonan's cross-examination earlier this week, already filed in Federal Court revealed that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

Human rights groups note that prisoners often don't admit to having been tortured -- especially when they're still in jail -- out of fear of more torture.

The only solution, Neve said, is for Canada or NATO to establish a detention facility where Afghan guards can be properly trained to respect human rights.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday's new deal merely formalizes commitments the government already has from the Afghans.

"We have access (to prisons) and can get information whenever we want it," he said in Vancouver.

He also repeated that the allegations of torture are "unsubstantiated" -- but there has been no investigation into the claims.

The Bloc Quebecois suggested it was happy with the new deal. But Liberal Leader Stephane Dion agreed with Amnesty's argument that prisoners should be kept out of Afghan hands and that NATO should be investigating abuse claims.

It's the second time the government has announced the deal. Last week, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said officials had reached an agreement to allow access to the detainees. But a day later, Harper said a deal remained to be formalized.

The agreement comes despite the fact that Harper has assured the House of Commons that the old deal was working well.

The Conservative government has also insisted that allegations of abuse are false even though no investigation has been conducted.

Since allegations surfaced that at least 30 detainees -- captured by Canadians and turned over to Afghan authorities -- might have been abused, the Conservatives have offered varying explanations.

After days of denying knowledge of any "specific" allegations of torture, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day revealed Monday that Canadian correctional officers in Kandahar had indeed reported torture claims by two detainees.

Despite that admission, the government's submission in the Federal Court hearing states that: "Canadian officials have not received any notification of mistreatment or torture of detainees transferred from Canada to Afghan authorities."

Amnesty lawyers asked for a copy of the written report submitted by the officers, but was denied on the grounds that it violated national security.

Opposition parties were outraged that the oral report from corrections officers -- obtained by Day last week -- was not clearly laid before the Commons.

They also accused Harper of misleading the Commons on Tuesday by claiming that Day had mentioned the corrections report of torture last week. In fact, Day said nothing of torture reports last week.

====

Ainlay students send fun to Afghan kids; Amnesty International club raises $550 for kites and balls

Who knew a kite could make a real difference to a young child living in Afghanistan?

"Each day, the simple joys in life help those in turmoil to keep going," writes Emily Douglas in a letter to students. Douglas, a Harry Ainlay student and member of the school's social justice club, Amnesty International, is determined to draw students' attention to Amnesty's latest campaign.

An e-mail from a Canadian working for the United Nations in Afghanistan drew the attention of Ainlay's Amnesty members to the lack of fun activities for children in that troubled country.

"About once a day I see a kite being flown," writes the Canadian aid worker, "most of the kites I see are plastic bags with muddy strings."

To address the problem, Amnesty decided to launch a campaign called "Go Fly a Kite" to raise money to purchase kites and soccer balls that could be sent to needy children in war-torn Afghanistan.

From April 10 to 13, Amnesty members took over the Ainlay rotunda with a massive kite and donation box. Students making donations were encouraged to sign the "donation kite" which will be sent to Afghanistan along with the purchased items.

By the end of the campaign, $550 was raised to buy kites and balls. These will be sent to Canadian troops stationed in Kandahar for distribution in the community.

"This effort is an alternate approach to foreign policy," says Ms. Newbold, Amnesty's teacher sponsor. "We will send goodwill and hope to Afghanistan."

As Emily Douglas wrote: "We hope you will contribute to this campaign and so contribute colour and joy to a child's life. As their kites soar in the wind, our hearts can only soar with hope."

Andrea Hill is in Grade 11 at Harry Ainlay high school

====

Soldiers face off against NHLers half a world away; Hockey night in Kandahar

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - It was supposed to be an exercise in boosting morale, but you wouldn't know it from the score.

Tiger Williams threw some playful punches and Ron Tugnutt nursed an iced cappuccino between the pipes Thursday as a group of former NHL players manhandled their Canadian Forces counterparts 7-1 in a friendly but hard-fought game of ball hockey.

No less a hockey icon than the Stanley Cup stood sentry over the proceedings from a shaded stoop nearby as Team Canada took on a badly outmatched Team Task Force in front of more than 100 Canadian and coalition soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.

Down by several goals, Cpl. Mike Loder of the 2nd Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., tried to rally his troops by getting into a scuffle with Williams, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy who's never shied away from a fight.

"I knew he was one of the harder Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play the game, and one of my definite idols," a beaming Loder said afterwards, dripping with sweat under the typically oppressive Afghanistan sun.

"As we were picking at each other, I kind of figured he wanted to go for a little brawl."

The fight, such as it was -- and Tiger wasn't pulling his punches, Loder said -- was no less one-sided than the game.

"He made more contact than me, I think," Loder grinned. "This is Tiger -- he'd really do it. That's good, though."

For his part, a tongue-in-cheek Williams was less than apologetic.

"You ever heard of a camel fly? They bite you in the face . . . I was just trying to wipe it off, but he didn't realize I was coming to his aid," he said as he signed autographs and posed for photos with fans.

"It's OK. He's young, he'll learn as things go on. But he's battle-ready, I'll tell you that."

ICING CALL

Between his shifts, former Toronto Maple Leafs defender Dave Hutchinson provided a running play-by-play commentary for Terry Kelly, a blind singer-songwriter from Newfoundland who sang O Canada.

And so untested was Tugnutt, the former goaltender for the defunct Quebec Nordiques, that he ordered an iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons that was delivered to his net midway through the third period.

Canada's top soldier, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, had been talking about suiting up and doing battle on a line with Williams and another well-known tough guy, former Detroit Red Wings forward Bob Probert.

But even though he was kitted out in a Team Task Force jersey with his name on the back, Hillier opted to settle for dropping the ball for the ceremonial faceoff.

"We got a whole bunch of young men here -- it's all men on our Task Force Afghanistan team -- this is the experience of their lives to be playing the NHL players, their sports heroes, and I didn't want to take even a second away from them doing that," Hillier said.

"I'm quite content to watch here -- I've got my sweater on, as you can see -- and they know which team I'm cheering for."

PROUD CANADIAN

Mark Napier, a two-time Stanley Cup winner who scored 235 goals with four different teams during his 11-year NHL career, conceded the teams weren't very evenly matched. But he said the experience of visiting Afghanistan has been one he'll never forget.

"Back home in Canada, you hear so many negative things about the military, and now you get here and find out it's not even close to what's portrayed back home," Napier said.

"I'm so proud of being a Canadian and of what this military does, and how good they are."

Williams, who is on his second visit to Afghanistan, appeared to get emotional when he talked about the sacrifices the soldiers are making -- and about what he considers a shortage of support from home.

"You don't have to agree with what's going on, but you do have to support them, because they're our soldiers and we all should be very proud of them," he said.

"To see the conditions that they have to put up with every day, the heat and the dust, never mind all the stuff that you could come home in a bag . . . It's a tough deal."

Napier cited the reconstruction work on Afghan schools and hospitals that Canadians are doing.

He noted that only 40,000 children were attending school before the soldiers arrived, and now there are more than 500,000 -- 40 per cent of them girls.

He rejected praise that the former NHLers had sacrificed much in coming to Afghanistan to put up with the oppressive heat and difficult conditions -- noting those are things the soldiers put up with on a daily basis.

"I've never played in anything this hot," he said. "I've never had so much fun, either."

====

Businesses urged to support reservists; Job guarantees allow troops to serve

WINDSOR, Ont. - Unable to do its job in Afghanistan without reservists, the Canadian military hopes to convince employers to let people take military leave without forcing them to choose between their country and their job.

The effort seems to be successful in Windsor, Ont., where the largest number of businesses so far in Canada will all sign up at once today to pledge their support.

"It's mission critical," said outreach officer Capt. Lori Boudreau, who came from Ottawa for the event.

"Canada can't do its job without reservists. It will be a very big issue in the next year-and-a-half as we look to send 600 reservists to Afghanistan in August 2008."

The Canadian Forces Liaison Council, created to lobby businesses and education institutions to extend military leave to reservists, will hold a signing ceremony today at University of Windsor.

It will recognize at least 35 local organizations that have agreed to give their employees leave and assure them their jobs will be there when they return. The CFLC, a civilian organization supported by military members, has held similar events from Vancouver to St. John's, N.L.

About 5,000 employers across Canada have signed on. But many others haven't, said Boudreau.

"People want to serve, but sometimes they can't if they don't have employer or educator support," she said. "It's been an issue for some soldiers. But we're really getting that turned around. Many employers now are very supportive."

====

Former NHLers defeat Canadian soldiers in ball hockey game in Kandahar

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (CP) _ It was supposed to be an exercise in boosting morale, but you wouldn't know it from the score.

Tiger Williams threw some playful punches and Ron Tugnutt nursed an iced cappuccino between the pipes Thursday as a group of former NHL heroes manhandled their Canadian Forces counterparts 7-1 in a friendly but hard-fought game of ball hockey.

No less a hockey icon than the Stanley Cup stood sentry over the proceedings from a shaded stoop nearby as Team Canada took on a badly outmatched Team Task Force in front of more than 100 Canadian and coalition soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.

Down by several goals, Cpl. Mike Loder of the 2nd Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., tried to rally his troops by getting into a scuffle with Williams, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy who's never shied away from a fight.

``I knew he was one of the harder Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play the game, and one of my definite idols,'' a beaming Loder said afterwards, dripping with sweat under the typically oppressive Afghanistan sun.

``As we were picking at each other, I kind of figured he wanted to go for a little brawl.''

The fight, such as it was _ and Tiger wasn't pulling his punches, Loder said _ was no less one-sided than the game.

``He made more contact than me, I think,'' Loder grinned. ``This is Tiger _ he'd really do it. That's good, though.''

For his part, a tongue-in-cheek Williams was less than apologetic.

``You ever heard of a camel fly? They bite you in the face ... I was just trying to wipe it off, but he didn't realize I was coming to his aid,'' he said as he signed autographs and posed for photos with fans.

``It's OK. He's young, he'll learn as things go on. But he's battle-ready, I'll tell you that.''

Between his shifts, former Toronto Maple Leafs defender Dave Hutchinson provided a running play-by-play commentary for Terry Kelly, a blind singer-songwriter from Newfoundland who sang the national anthem.

And so untested was Tugnutt, the former goaltender for the defunct Quebec Nordiques, that he placed an order for an iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons that was delivered to his net midway through the third period.

Canada's top soldier, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, had been talking about suiting up and doing battle on a line with Williams and another well-known tough guy, former Detroit Red Wings forward Bob Probert.

But even though he was kitted out in a Team Task Force jersey with his name on the back, Hillier opted to settle for dropping the ball during the ceremonial opening faceoff.

``We got a whole bunch of young men here _ it's all men on our Task Force Afghanistan team _ this is the experience of their lives to be playing the NHL players, their sports heroes, and I didn't want to take even a second away from them doing that,'' Hillier said.

``I'm quite content to watch here _ I've got my sweater on, as you can see _ and they know which team I'm cheering for.''

Mark Napier, a two-time Stanley Cup winner who scored 235 goals with four different teams during his 11-year NHL career, conceded the teams weren't very evenly matched. But he said the experience of visiting Afghanistan has been one he's never likely to forget.

``Back home in Canada, you hear so many negative things about the military, and now you get here and find out it's not even close to what's portrayed back home,'' Napier said.

``I'm so proud of being a Canadian and of what this military does, and how good they are.''

Williams, who is on his second visit to Afghanistan, appeared to get a little emotional when he talked about the sacrifices Canada's soldiers are making _ and about what he considers a shortage of support from the home front.

``You don't have to agree with what's going on, but you do have to support them, because they're our soldiers and we all should be very proud of them,'' he said.

``To see the conditions that they have to put up with every day, the heat and the dust, never mind all the stuff that you could come home in a bag ... it's tough. It's a tough deal.''

Napier cited the example of the reconstruction work on schools and hospitals that Canadians are doing in Afghanistan.

He noted that only 40,000 children were attending school before the soldiers arrived, and now there are more than 500,000 _ 40 per cent of them girls.

He rejected praise that the former NHLers had sacrificed much in coming to Afghanistan to put up with the oppressive heat and difficult conditions _ noting those are things the soldiers put up with on a daily basis.

``I've never played in anything this hot,'' he said. ``I've never had so much fun, either.''

====

Canada signs new prisoner transfer agreement with Afghans

OTTAWA (CP) _ Canada has signed a new prisoner-transfer agreement with Afghan authorities amid a raging controversy over the alleged torture of some detainees.

A Federal Court hearing on the transfer of prisoners was put on hold Thursday after government lawyers announced the new deal, which allows greater access to insurgents turned over to the Afghans by Canadian soldiers.

Proceedings in Amnesty International's application for an injunction against the transfers were stopped pending further details on the agreement.

Amnesty wants to halt all transfers until the welfare of the prisoners can be assured. But federal lawyers filed an affidavit Thursday before formal court proceedings began, assuring the court that the new agreement does just that.

It's the second time the government has announced the deal. Last week, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said officials had reached an agreement to allow access to the detainees. But a day later, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said a deal remained to be formalized.

The agreement comes despite the fact that Harper has assured the House of Commons that the old deal was working well. The Conservative government has also insisted that allegations of abuse are false even though no investigation has been conducted.

Since allegations surfaced that at least 30 detainees _ captured by Canadians and turned over to Afghan authorities _ might have been abused, the Conservatives have offered confusing and contradictory explanations.

After days of denying knowledge of any ``specific'' allegations of torture, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day revealed Monday that Canadian correctional officers in Kandahar had indeed reported torture claims by two detainees.

Despite that revelation, the government's submission in the Federal Court hearing states that: ``Canadian officials have not received any notification of mistreatment or torture of detainees transferred from Canada to Afghan authorities.''

Opposition parties were outraged that the oral report from corrections officers _ obtained by Day last week _ was not clearly laid before the Commons.

They also accused Harper of misleading the Commons on Wednesday by claiming that Day had mentioned the corrections report of torture last week. In fact, Day said nothing of torture reports last week.

International law experts have said Canada or NATO should take over responsibility for detainees, but the written brief filed by Justice Department lawyers at Federal Court said that's not possible.

``The (Canadian Force) does not have the infrastructure, training or personnel to maintain a detention facility in Afghanistan,'' said the document.

It warned that holding prisoners at the temporary facility, located at Kandahar Airfield, would give captured Taliban fighters the opportunity to plan escapes.

The government submission also reveals that the Canadian Forces have two procedures for handling Afghan detainees, including one that does not involve any oversight by human rights groups.

The documents show that Canadian troops are authorized to hand some detainees directly to Afghan authorities, rather than take them prisoner. That would appear to circumvent rules that require Canadian soldiers to notify human rights monitors when they detain Afghan militants.

====

Federal Court hearing advisory

EDITORS: The Federal Court of Canada hears an application this morning from Amnesty International seeking an injunction prohibiting Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan from turning enemy prisoners over to Afghan authorities until the question of the abuse and torture is clarified. CP is staffing and copy will be expedited. 9:30a ET, East Courtroom, Supreme Court of Canada building, Wellington Street, Ottawa.

CP Ottawa

====

--Eleventh NewsWatch--

Testimony at the Air India inquiry suggests the R-C-M-P had a warning the airline was targetted just days before Flight 182 was blown up.

James Bartleman, who is now the lieutenant-governor of Ontario, was a security analyst in 1985 and says he found an intercept warning of an Air India attack the week of June 18th.

He says he took the information to an R-C-M-P officer who angrily rebuked him for appearing to tell him how to do his job.

Air India flight 182 exploded on June 23rd, 1985 -- killing 329 people. (11)

(Afghan-Cda-Abuse) (Audio: 105)

The federal government isn't releasing any details of a new prisoner transfer agreement with Afghanistan.

But a Federal Court judge says Canada will have access to detainees handed over by Canadian soldiers -- and will be able to interview them in private.

The judge was to hear an application today from Amnesty International calling for a halt to Afghan prisoner transfers until their welfare can be assured.

That case is now on hold -- but the human rights groups says it still not satisfied. (11)

(Iraq-Al-Qaida) (Audio: 106)

He's been accused of being a mastermind behind abductions of westerners in Iraq -- including two Canadians in 2005.

Now he's dead.

U-S forces say Muharib Abdul-Latif al-Jubouri died Tuesday in a firefight north of Baghdad.

Al-Jubouri was believed to have been behind the abduction of four members of the Christian Peacemakers in 2005, and killing one of them.

The survivors included a man from Ontario and one from Quebec. (11)

(HKY-Doan-Politics) (Audio: P05)

Hockey Canada officials are defending Team Canada captain Shane Doan amid allegations he made a slur against a French-Canadian referee in 2005.

Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson appeared before the Commons language committee today.

As members questioned whether Doan should have been named captain, Nicholson accused politicians of wrongly putting the player and his family through the wringer.

Nicholson acknowledged a slur was made, but insists Doan didn't make it. (11)

(OBIT-Schirra)

A legendary space voyager is dead.

Wally Schirra (shah-RAH'), one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, died yesterday of cancer.

He was 84.

In 1962 Schirra became the third American to orbit the Earth.

He later flew on Gemini and Apollo missions. (11)

(Royal Visit)

Thousands of people are expected to gather in Virginia to get a rare glimpse of the Queen in the U-S.

The Queen and Prince Philip are going to mark the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown colony.

She also plans to have a private audience with survivors of last month's massacre at Virginia Tech. (11)

(NewsWatch by Roger Ward)

====

Afghan-Cda-Abuse-Update (add question period)

OTTAWA -- News that Canada has formally signed a rewritten prisoner transfer deal with Afghanistan has taken some of the sting out of question period for the ruling Tories.

The opposition parties have focused on the details of the arrangement rather the missteps of the Conservatives in handling the controversy.

Absent were calls for the resignation of Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor, unlike previous days.

Government House Leader Peter Van Loan says the new arrangement improves on a deal signed by the Liberals in December 2005.

Under the old deal, Canada handed over captured enemy fighters to Afghan authorities, but did not have the right to check on them afterward.

The new arrangement changes that and allows for Canadian officials to privately interview detainees to make sure they're being treated well.

The deal came just as a federal judge was expected to hear arguments for an injunction barring any further transfers.

The case has been put on hold as Amnesty International, which launched the application, and government lawyers examine the impact of the new arrangement.

(BN)

mub

====

New prisoner deal signed; Threat of injunction forced government to amend previous agreement, judge says

It took the threat of a legal injunction to force the federal government to amend a widely criticized prisoner transfer agreement with Afghanistan, a federal judge says.

"It probably wouldn't have happened if this court case hadn't been happening, " Federal Court Justice Michael Kelen said during a dramatic morning in his courtroom, where news of the deal was revealed yesterday.

Human rights advocates had gone to court seeking an injunction to bar the transfer of prisoners by Canadian troops into the hands of Afghan authorities, where torture and abuse are rampant, according to international reports.

But hours before the case was set to begin, Arif Lalani, Canada's new envoy in Afghanistan, met with that country's defence minister in Kabul and signed a new protocol for prisoner handovers, giving Canadians greater access to detention facilities.

Paul Champ, lawyer for the two groups seeking the injunction, said he only learned of the deal on the doorstep of the federal courthouse.

"We have forced their hand. They have come up with a very detailed deal which for over a year they've been saying they didn't have to do, so I think that is a significant victory," he said.

Alex Neve, of Amnesty International Canada, said the new arrangements are an improvement, but he warned it's not likely to halt the abuse and torture that goes on within Afghanistan's justice system.

"Deals of this sort aren't the answer. You don't prevent torture in a country where it is as rampant and systematic as it is in Afghanistan by sending in monitors on an occasional basis. It simply doesn't work," he said.

And he questioned why, after months of criticism and international reports about abuse in Afghan jails, the Conservatives didn't act sooner to amend existing transfer arrangements.

"This is an agreement that could have been finalized last week, three months ago. This is the agreement we could have had at the very outset," Neve said. "It's disconcerting to have it appear at the last minute."

This latest deal, first hinted at by Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor last week, is meant to supplement a deal signed in December 2005, and includes some of the safeguards that exist in other country's agreements with Afghanistan, including:

"Full and unrestricted" access for Canadians and local human rights officials to prisoners transferred into Afghan custody by Canadian troops.

No transfer of detainees to another authority without Canada's written consent.

A promise by the Afghans to hold detainees in a limited number of facilities to make it easier to arrange visits.

The right to visit and interview prisoners privately, without the intimidating presence of Afghan security officials.

A renewed pledge by Afghanistan that prisoners will not be subjected to torture or degrading treatment.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said this latest arrangement with Afghanistan builds on the 2005 agreement. "We have improved upon it. We have done what was asked by others of Canadians. We are going to see that that is implemented by the Afghan government," he told the Commons.

Still, it marks a dramatic change for a government that had downplayed reports of torture and accused critics of believing Taliban lies as it tried to weather the political firestorm.

But facing a daily furor after reports that detainees transferred by Canadian troops into the custody of Afghan security officials were abused, even tortured, the Conservatives finally relented.

Gen. Rick Hillier, who has taken flak for signing the widely criticized deal in 2005, was conspicuously absent from any involvement this time around, even though he too was in Afghanistan yesterday.

Hillier, in Kandahar to visit the troops, had little to say about the development when buttonholed last night upon arrival at Canada House for a barbecue event featuring NHL alumni.

His name, unlike the last time, doesn't appear on the revised document. And the general made it clear this was a foreign affairs department production.

"It's a foreign affairs lead and they've been working on that issue, obviously."

He'd yet even to see a copy of the new agreement, "so I won't comment on it until I get the full details. I think that's fair, isn't it?" Hillier said.

Because of the surprise development, the motion for an injunction was adjourned.

With files from Rosie DiManno

====

Soldier: Afghans beat Canadians' prisoner

Canadian troops in Kandahar were so disturbed by the beating of a prisoner they had just transferred to the Afghan police force that they demanded to have the man returned to their care, a top soldier says in a sworn affidavit.

The testimony of Col. Steve Noonan, a former senior commander on the Afghan mission, casts doubt on the claims of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and senior ministers that they had no specific reports of abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan.

Noonan tells of at least one detainee who got a rough ride after being handed over to the Afghan National Police (ANP). And he says it's documented in the military's own reports.

"The CF (Canadian Forces) learned that detainee had been beaten by the local ANP. When they learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them," Noonan said.

"The ANP complied and the CF subsequently transferred the detainee to the Provincial ANP."

In the midst of controversy regarding abuse of prisoners after they are handed over by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities, the two countries signed a new prisoner-transfer agreement yesterday. It includes safeguards such as allowing Canadians greater access to detention facilities.

Noonan gave his sworn statement this week as part of the government's response to legal proceedings launched by human rights advocates. But in attempting to show how the Canadian Forces use discretion in the handling of detainees he appears to have given ammunition to critics of the government's policy.

In legal proceedings prior to a scheduled court hearing yesterday, the government stymied efforts by the lawyer for Amnesty International Canada, one of two groups seeking an injunction on prisoner transfers, to get more details when he cross-examined Noonan.

Questions to Noonan on Wednesday about the date of the incident, even the medical condition of the prisoner, were blocked by justice department lawyer Sanderson Graham.

"When did that incident occur?" asked Paul Champ, the Amnesty lawyer.

"We object to that question," Graham replied.

"On what basis?"

"On the basis of national security," Graham said.

"It threatens Canada's national security to know when the Canadian Forces observed local Afghan National Police beating a detainee that they transferred to that unit?" Champ said.

"We object to any questions on this incident generally," Graham replied.

Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran, who has been active on the detainee issue, charged yesterday that the federal government is covering up reports of mistreatment of prisoners.

"Canada is aware of specific allegations and even specific instances of torture that are being kept secret," he said.

Defence department officials referred queries about the incident to foreign affairs staff, who were not able to respond.

Noonan also revealed in his testimony that Canada has taken more detainees than public figures - which peg the number at around 40 - so far suggest.

"There has been an increase in the number of detainees since the (Canadian Forces) began operations around Kandahar," Noonan said, refusing to release specific numbers because of "operational security."

He said Canadian soldiers on patrol in Kandahar must be able to take prisoners when they confront enemy forces. "These choices essentially break down to kill, capture or be killed," Noonan said. "A detained enemy is not able to attack Canadian or allied soldiers."

Releasing prisoners is an "unacceptable risk."

"Such persons may have been captured while trying to kill or wound CF or allied soldiers or Afghan civilians," Noonan said.

Meanwhile, Colleen Swords, a senior foreign affairs official responsible for international security and defence issues, has admitted she never read her department's warnings of human rights abuses in Afghanistan until the findings were highlighted in a newspaper report last week.

The foreign affairs department's 2006 assessment of Afghanistan warns that "extra-judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common."

"I have not read it from beginning to end," Swords said when cross-examined, adding human rights "does not fall under my area of responsibility."

====

Harper's shabby Afghan shuffle

After weeks of uproar in Parliament, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has finally taken ownership of the Afghan prisoner-transfer file.

But the damage was done by the time Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay belatedly stood yesterday in the Commons to confirm that Ottawa has signed a frantically improvised "enhanced agreement" with the Afghans that will at last give Canada "full, unrestricted and private access" to detainees to ensure they are not tortured.

The Tories' healthy lead in opinion polls last month, which was close to the 40 per cent mark needed to form a majority government, has collapsed to 30 per cent, tied with the Liberals, Decima Research reports.

Little wonder, given that the Conservatives have been sloppy managers of Canada's most significant foreign policy commitment, involving more than $1 billion in aid and 2,500 combat troops. Their attempt to shuffle off responsibility for detainees has tarnished our image as a staunch defender of international law and human rights. That has not enhanced our credibility with the Afghan people and has raised fears our troops might be violating the Geneva Conventions by delivering prisoners to torture.

Nor can the Tories claim they weren't warned. More than a year ago, the Star asked: "Will Canadian troops in Afghanistan find themselves handing over Taliban or Al Qaeda suspects to torture, or worse, as they play a bigger role there? The answer should be obvious, but unfortunately isn't."

At the time, the Star urged Ottawa to strengthen a weak 2005 prisoner transfer pact negotiated under the Liberals. The Dutch have always required the Afghans to keep records of detainees, to allow "full access," and to serve notice of trials, transfers and releases.

Yet it took an uproar in Parliament over claims by Taliban detainees that they had been beaten and shocked to shake the Tories from their torpor to draw up a Dutch-style "supplementary arrangement." That, plus the Tory slump in the polls and Amnesty International's court challenge.

For days, the Conservatives tried to deny a problem existed. They accused the Liberals and other opposition parties of being disloyal, of being Taliban dupes, of sapping troop morale. They claimed no knowledge of "specific" instances of torture, when they had evidence that torture was pervasive. And they trotted out farcically incoherent, contradictory and dissembling explanations of our policy.

However, the new prisoner transfer pact, with its improved protections, shatters their claim that all was well.

While the new deal is welcome, Harper's team disgraced itself in this fiasco. Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor was missing in action, when he wasn't sowing confusion. Public Security Minister Stockwell Day hid behind obtuse non-replies. MacKay seemed confused, for the most part.

Even now, Canadians still do not know how many detainees our troops have taken, how exactly they have been handled, who those detainees are or where they may be. Canadians have no assurance they have not been abused. The Tories themselves do not know, because they chose not to know. They handed off that job to the understaffed and ineffective Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. Only under intense pressure have the Tories grudgingly assumed moral ownership of this file.

Better late than never, but it was unconscionably late.

The Conservatives have shamed Canadians and undermined their own credibility with this shabby performance. Their casual disregard for human rights is at odds with Canada's honourable tradition of advancing such rights. If the Afghan debacle is a dismal chapter in Conservative party history, it is also an instructive one.

====

Ottawa uproar over Afghan abuse is just inside baseball

There's an expression for particular topics the average Joe wouldn't be terribly interested or conversant in: "Inside baseball."

According to the online dictionary, Wikipedia, it originated with American sportswriter Bill James and refers to special access to inside information, and the capacity of an insider -- like a sportswriter analysing baseball manoeuvres -- to understand and process that information.

The phrase is ideally illustrated by the fooferaw in Ottawa over Afghan detainees being abused by Afghan security officials following their transfer by Canadian soldiers.

This controversy, which has consumed the past week of political debate in Parliament, most definitely is inside baseball.

Perhaps an observer must be far away from Ottawa to recognize the notion that most folks simply aren't prepared to get their knickers in a knot about the situation.

Get this -- Canadians are far more concerned about the welfare of brave, hard-working Canadian troops over in Afghanistan than about possible abuse of Taliban-type detainees at the hands of their own countrymen.

Canadians are more likely to be perturbed that our soldiers -- 54 of whom have been killed to date, along with one Canadian diplomat -- are over there, when it's far from clear that real good will come from this mission. Might Afghanistan ultimately turn into a no-win effort similar to Iraq?

Moreover, it is tough for people to get worked up about as-yet-unproven abuse of the detainees when it's generally understood that good, decent Afghan citizens are starving or being denied human rights in the normal course of their lives.

This is part of the challenge in reaching out to help Afghanistan. NATO must help the fledgling country to develop a good prison system.

Of course, the issue at play in Parliament is whether Canada is respecting Geneva Convention stipulations that prisoners of war be treated humanely.

But no allegations are being made directly involving our soldiers. The allegations relate exclusively to Afghan security officials.

So, for those following this debate, the problem centres on an agreement signed by Canada in 2005 that governs the transfer of Afghan prisoners. The agreement does not contain guarantees as stringent as those signed by some other NATO countries that are in Afghanistan.

But that agreement was signed when the Liberal government was in power. And if the agreement is at the root of the controversy it is the Liberals who must shoulder blame.

Specifically, cabinet correspondence and Defence Department briefing notes reveal that then-prime minister Paul Martin was briefed months before the agreement in question was signed with the Afghans.

Such Liberal government involvement underscores what a useless political issue this is for those up in Power City. Neither the government nor the official Opposition can score points on this so-called scandal.

Further, the political fuss is surely serving to substantively demoralize our troops in Kandahar. And the more the opposition raises hell about this matter, the more it reflects badly on Canada's role in the war-ravaged country.

The fact that Gordon O'Connor is such a weak defence minister has resulted in the troops being more exposed than they need be. He is lacking in credibility and has been woefully inconsistent in his responses in the House of Commons to opposition questions.

Despite his lacklustre performance, Canadians are not getting riled by this tempest. In Vancouver, I have yet to hear anyone outside the baseball stadium discuss the prisoner transfers.

It should be noted that Canadians do care about human rights. It's probable they take them somewhat for granted because they have never had to struggle mightily to attain human rights in this great nation.

That might be what is behind the apparent insouciance with which the prospect of a human rights museum, to be established in Winnipeg in 2010, is being viewed.

An Angus Reid poll released Thursday found fewer than half of Canadians support a Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Fully 52 per cent were either opposed or expressed no view.

If a poll were conducted on feelings about Afghan security officials possibly abusing Afghan prisoners, even more uninterest would be evident.

byaffe@png.canwest.com

====

Federal Tories losing touch

Besides being a political power play that is way offside, the Shane Doan affair is instructive on another level.

It shows just how sadly out of touch the federal Conservative party has become.

When the Conservatives broke their election promise on not taxing income trusts, most of their voters understood why and forgave them. The Tories did what they believed was best for the country and many economic analysts agreed that changing circumstances required a change in policy.

EQUALIZATION

When the Tories fiddled with the equalization formula and gave the lion's share to Quebec, most of their voters understood why and forgave them.

In their eagerness to be viewed as more green than Kermit the Frog, the Tories announced a carbon tax. Most of their voters understood why and forgave them. If the Liberals had done this, there would have been screams of bloody murder in Alberta. Then again, a Tory carbon tax is likely better than what the Liberals would do under Stephane Dion.

When it comes to the Conservatives being uncharacteristically off-message on what happens to Taliban prisoners after our Canadian soldiers hand them over to Afghan authorities, most of their voters understand why and forgive them. After all, Afghanistan's government is in a bit of a mess.

Now that it's been shown the Liberals knew Taliban prisoners might get tortured way back in 2002 and decided to turn them over to Afghan authorities with no provision for even checking on their welfare, many voters recognize the Liberals were much worse on the file than the Conservatives - and hypocrites besides.

But this latest swing by the Tories into shameful Liberal, NDP and Bloc territory in the Doan affair will not be forgiven so easily. It is not good for the country, for the party, for decency or for anything.

QUEBEC FACTOR

All politically attuned Canadians know that for power all politicians in Canada must pander somewhat to Quebec. It is simply a necessity. Most of us can live with some of that.

But trying to score political points on the back of an upstanding, honourable young hockey star playing his heart out for his country on a volunteer basis in Moscow is akin to a cheap shot for many Conservatives. This will stick in their craws for a long time.

Yesterday, Conservative members of the Commons' official languages committee -- including the five Conservatives who supported a Bloc motion to summon Hockey Canada officials to yesterday's hearing -- tried to soften their message and show support for Captain Canada. It was too little, too late.

They should have voted against the motion. Period. First, Doan categorically denies having called a French Canadian linesman a "f---ing Frenchman." By virtue of the fact that he is known not to swear and actually uses the word "fudge" on the ice at times of frustration would appear to back him up.

In addition, Doan was cleared by the NHL more than a year ago on this almost two-year-old incident.

If there is ever a time when French and English come together most beautifully in this country, it is on the ice. The political arena tends to muck up the whole thing.

PLUMMETING

The Tories are plummeting in the polls because they no longer know who they are or what they stand for and voters know it.

They should stand up for decency and this country. Always. Shane Doan stands for both. By voting to question his captaincy the Conservatives prove unquestioningly how offside they have skated in their blind pursuit of power.

====

Hockey Night in ... Kandahar Former NHL heroes face off with our troops

It was supposed to be an exercise in boosting morale, but you wouldn't know it from the score.

Tiger Williams threw some playful punches and Ron Tugnutt nursed an iced cappuccino between the pipes yesterday as a group of former NHL heroes manhandled their Canadian Forces counterparts 7-1 in a friendly but hard-fought game of ball hockey.

No less a hockey icon than the Stanley Cup stood sentry over the proceedings from a shaded stoop nearby as Team Canada took on a badly outmatched Team Task Force in front of more than 100 Canadian and coalition soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.

PLAY WITH IDOLS

Down by several goals, Cpl. Mike Loder of the 2nd Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Grand Falls-Windsor, Nfld., tried to rally his troops by getting into a scuffle with Williams, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy who's never shied away from a fight.

"I knew he was one of the harder Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play the game, and one of my definite idols," a beaming Loder said afterwards

"As we were picking at each other, I kind of figured he wanted to go for a little brawl."

The fight, such as it was -- and Tiger wasn't pulling his punches, Loder said -- was no less one-sided than the game.

"He made more contact than me, I think," Loder grinned.

A tongue-in-cheek Williams was less than apologetic. "You ever heard of a camel fly? They bite you in the face ... I was just trying to wipe it off, but he didn't realize I was coming to his aid," he said as he signed autographs for fans.

Between his shifts, former Leafs defender Dave Hutchinson provided a running commentary for Terry Kelly, a blind singer-songwriter from Newfoundland who sang the national anthem.

And so untested was Tugnutt, the former goaltender for the defunct Quebec Nordiques, that he placed an order for an iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons that was delivered to his net midway through the third period.

Canada's top soldier, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, had been talking about suiting up and doing battle on a line with Williams and another well-known tough guy, former Detroit Red Wings forward Bob Probert.

CEREMONIAL OPENING

But even though he was kitted out in a Team Task Force jersey with his name on the back, Hillier settled for dropping the ball during the ceremonial opening faceoff.

"We got a whole bunch of young men here -- it's all men on our Task Force Afghanistan team -- this is the experience of their lives to be playing the NHL players, their sports heroes, and I didn't want to take even a second away from them doing that," Hillier said.

Mark Napier, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, conceded the teams weren't very evenly matched. But he said the experience of visiting Afghanistan has been one he's never likely to forget.

Williams, on his second visit to Afghanistan, appeared to get a little emotional when he talked about the sacrifices Canada's soldiers are making.

"You don't have to agree with what's going on, but you do have to support them," he said.

====

Federal Tories losing touch

Besides being a political power play that is way offside, the Shane Doan affair is instructive on another level.

It shows just how sadly out of touch the federal Conservative party has become.

When the Conservatives broke their election promise on not taxing income trusts, most of their voters understood why and forgave them. The Tories did what they believed was best for the country and many economic analysts agreed that changing circumstances required a change in policy.

EQUALIZATION

When the Tories fiddled with the equalization formula and gave the lion's share to Quebec, most of their voters understood why and forgave them.

In their eagerness to be viewed as more green than Kermit the Frog, the Tories announced a carbon tax. Most of their voters understood why and forgave them. If the Liberals had done this, there would have been screams of bloody murder in Alberta. Then again, a Tory carbon tax is likely better than what the Liberals would do under Stephane Dion.

When it comes to the Conservatives being uncharacteristically off-message on what happens to Taliban prisoners after our Canadian soldiers hand them over to Afghan authorities, most of their voters understand why and forgive them. After all, Afghanistan's government is in a bit of a mess.

Now that it's been shown the Liberals knew Taliban prisoners might get tortured way back in 2002 and decided to turn them over to Afghan authorities with no provision for even checking on their welfare, many voters recognize the Liberals were much worse on the file than the Conservatives - and hypocrites besides.

But this latest swing by the Tories into shameful Liberal, NDP and Bloc territory in the Doan affair will not be forgiven so easily. It is not good for the country, for the party, for decency or for anything.

QUEBEC FACTOR

All politically attuned Canadians know that for power all politicians in Canada must pander somewhat to Quebec. It is simply a necessity. Most of us can live with some of that.

But trying to score political points on the back of an upstanding, honourable young hockey star playing his heart out for his country on a volunteer basis in Moscow is akin to a cheap shot for many Conservatives. This will stick in their craws for a long time.

Yesterday, Conservative members of the Commons' official languages committee -- including the five Conservatives who supported a Bloc motion to summon Hockey Canada officials to yesterday's hearing -- tried to soften their message and show support for Captain Canada. It was too little, too late.

They should have voted against the motion. Period. First, Doan categorically denies having called a French Canadian linesman a "f---ing Frenchman." By virtue of the fact that he is known not to swear and actually uses the word "fudge" on the ice at times of frustration would appear to back him up.

In addition, Doan was cleared by the NHL more than a year ago on this almost two-year-old incident.

If there is ever a time when French and English come together most beautifully in this country, it is on the ice. The political arena tends to muck up the whole thing.

PLUMMETING

The Tories are plummeting in the polls because they no longer know who they are or what they stand for and voters know it.

They should stand up for decency and this country. Always. Shane Doan stands for both. By voting to question his captaincy the Conservatives prove unquestioningly how offside they have skated in their blind pursuit of power.

====

Prison deal panned

The Conservative government has inked a new deal that gives Canada unrestricted access to monitor prisoners in Afghanistan, but the pact was swiftly panned as a "frantic improvisation" that fails to protect detainees.

The agreement was announced by a federal court justice, who postponed a plea from Amnesty International to order the federal government to halt its transfer of prisoners. Amnesty Canada's secretary general Alex Neve called the new provisions a step forward, but not a solution.

"You don't prevent torture in a country where it is as rampant and systematic ... by sending in monitors on an occasional basis," he said.

Amnesty wants Canada to establish its own detention facilities in collaboration with Afghan authorities. KEYWORDS=NATIONAL

====

Frontpage ON GUARD FOR STANLEY Ex-NHLers bring hockey's Holy Grail to boost spirits of our sports-starved troops in Afghanistan

====

Federal Tories losing touch

Besides being a political power play that is way offside, the Shane Doan affair is instructive on another level.

It shows just how sadly out of touch the federal Conservative party has become.

When the Conservatives broke their election promise on not taxing income trusts, most of their voters understood why and forgave them. The Tories did what they believed was best for the country and many economic analysts agreed that changing circumstances required a change in policy.

EQUALIZATION

When the Tories fiddled with the equalization formula and gave the lion's share to Quebec, most of their voters understood why and forgave them.

In their eagerness to be viewed as more green than Kermit the Frog, the Tories announced a carbon tax. Most of their voters understood why and forgave them. If the Liberals had done this, there would have been screams of bloody murder in Alberta. Then again, a Tory carbon tax is likely better than what the Liberals would do under Stephane Dion.

When it comes to the Conservatives being uncharacteristically off-message on what happens to Taliban prisoners after our Canadian soldiers hand them over to Afghan authorities, most of their voters understand why and forgive them. After all, Afghanistan's government is in a bit of a mess.

Now that it's been shown the Liberals knew Taliban prisoners might get tortured way back in 2002 and decided to turn them over to Afghan authorities with no provision for even checking on their welfare, many voters recognize the Liberals were much worse on the file than the Conservatives - and hypocrites besides.

But this latest swing by the Tories into shameful Liberal, NDP and Bloc territory in the Doan affair will not be forgiven so easily. It is not good for the country, for the party, for decency or for anything.

QUEBEC FACTOR

All politically attuned Canadians know that for power all politicians in Canada must pander somewhat to Quebec. It is simply a necessity. Most of us can live with some of that.

But trying to score political points on the back of an upstanding, honourable young hockey star playing his heart out for his country on a volunteer basis in Moscow is akin to a cheap shot for many Conservatives. This will stick in their craws for a long time.

Yesterday, Conservative members of the Commons' official languages committee -- including the five Conservatives who supported a Bloc motion to summon Hockey Canada officials to yesterday's hearing -- tried to soften their message and show support for Captain Canada. It was too little, too late.

They should have voted against the motion. Period. First, Doan categorically denies having called a French Canadian linesman a "f---ing Frenchman." By virtue of the fact that he is known not to swear and actually uses the word "fudge" on the ice at times of frustration would appear to back him up.

In addition, Doan was cleared by the NHL more than a year ago on this almost two-year-old incident.

If there is ever a time when French and English come together most beautifully in this country, it is on the ice. The political arena tends to muck up the whole thing.

PLUMMETING

The Tories are plummeting in the polls because they no longer know who they are or what they stand for and voters know it.

They should stand up for decency and this country. Always. Shane Doan stands for both. By voting to question his captaincy the Conservatives prove unquestioningly how offside they have skated in their blind pursuit of power.

====

Letters to the Editor Column

As a Calgarian who enjoyed a long playoff run here three years ago, I support all the Sens fans who feel they have the same chance this year.

I am very impressed with the current play of the Senators and I also feel they have what it takes to go deep in this year's playoffs. The fans the other night were great, cheering for Alfie and all the other guys.

Way to go Sens players and fans, do us all proud ... Go Sens Go!

Ron White

(Thanks)

Could the real reason some of our more bleeding-heart MPs are bashing Shane Doan is because he is a real right winger?

Richard Barrie

(Very funny)

RE "IN God they trust" (May 3): It is refreshing to hear a young athlete openly discuss his faith ... or a newspaper that actually wants to print it.

Mike Fisher not only talks the talk but also walks the walk as he has demonstrated over and over again in this community.

Jacquelynn Greening

(Not to mention on ice)

Keep Shane Doan as captain and charge MPs with racism.

What a political farce!

Canada's three un-wise men -- Layton, Duceppe and Dion -- have arrogantly decided that Shane Doan should not represent Canada because two years ago he may have uttered a not-nice word.

Of course we all know that no francophone has ever uttered the words "les maudits Anglais."

Okay politicos, it is time to get back to work defending Taliban murderers in Afghanistan and trashing any environmental plan that does not eliminate 100% of greenhouse gases. You can start by eliminating your own gases. Butt out of hockey!

Dyan Cross

(They should stick to what they know ... whatever that is)

RE: Who should win the NHL's MVP Award? One word: "Alfie." Captain Daniel Alfredsson has proven time and time again what a great leader (and player) is all about. Not only does he lead by example but works hard during every game; he is all over the place ensuring that the right player gets the puck in the goal, scores often and usually gets a star!

He is alert, quick and strong. The thunderous cheers from the fans during Thursday's match (just before he scored and killed a penalty in the first period!) prove how valuable he is to his team. There is no doubt that the success of the Senators is due in great part to his talent.

I believe that at least he should be awarded the Conn Smythe trophy for most valuable player in the playoffs.

Go Alfie Go!

Denyse Goneau

(Amen)

Great hockey game Wednesday night, even greater was the display of leadership by the Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier.

His comments in support of the mission in Kandahar and his men and women go a long way to boost the morale of current, past and future military personnel. Simply said, MPs in Ottawa could take a lesson in leadership principles from Gen. Hillier, probably the top CDS in recent history.

In most cases, the CDS moves on to retirement after his tenure of duty. Picture this, Prime Minister Rick Hillier and for deputy PM, Don Cherry. Now there's a team that would get things done. (Unlike the Gong Show antics on The Hill lately)

Don Smith

Kingston

(Er, how about Hillier and Ron MacLean?)

I think gas companies (or their shareholders) are getting to be a little too greedy.

They are always complaining about the high cost of crude and "slim" profit margin, yet they are making record profits ... if business is so rough, maybe we should just do what the Venezuelan government did and nationalize all their assets.

Michel Trahan

(Somehow, we doubt our government would do a better job)

====

No order too tall for 'Lord Stanley'

The Sens Army Barrhaven brigade has an imposing new commander in its ranks on the quest for the Cup.

An eight-foot statue of a Roman soldier, complete with helmet, shield, sword and mechanical arm, will lead the charge into battle from Sens fan Andrew Carlin's Roblyn Way lawn.

Carlin and neighbour Mike Casey spent "oh, about 35 or 40 hours" building the soldier out of various household materials that were otherwise destined for the dump. Strips of salvaged sheet metal are fixed to a copper pipe skeleton forming the body. Vertical blinds tossed from Casey's kitchen and spray-painted metallic gold make the soldier's traditional skirt. Red LED lights cast a menacing glow from ping-pong-ball eyes, embedded in a papier mache head.

A helpless-looking penguin is crushed under one of the soldier's metal boots, fashioned from discarded air duct vents.

"We haven't figured out what to use for a devil yet," said Carlin. "But we'll find something to put under his other boot when the Sens knock off New Jersey."

The pair prepared a video featuring the soldier -- dubbed "Lord Stanley" -- to enter into CBC's "Bring Home the Cup" contest. As part of the competition, Carlin's garage has been transformed into the neighbourhood hockey shrine, with a makeshift bedsheet projection screen to watch every Ottawa playoff game. In the video, two fans wearing Darcy Tucker Leafs jerseys are banished permanently to an area called the "penalty box."

"It would be pretty cool to have Mark Messier show up at our door," said Carlin.

VIDEO MESSAGE

Grand prize winners score a visit from the hockey legend, and get to spend a day with the storied Stanley Cup.

Even if they don't win the contest, "it's still a win-win for us," said Casey.

The pair is hoping their video message will reach their Barrhaven neighbour, Chief Warrant Officer Dave Mahon, who is serving a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

"He's been in Afghanistan since January. Last year at this time he was with us, watching the playoffs," said Casey. "We just want him to know we're thinking about him."

"They have Hockey Night in Kandahar over there," said Carlin. "We just hope he's watching."

Meanwhile in Barrhaven, passersby are stopping their cars to have their pictures taken beside Lord Stanley.

"It's getting a lot of attention," said Casey. "Anything to have some fun with the neighbours and the kids."

Carlin and Casey are considering auctioning off the soldier at the end of the playoffs, with all proceeds going to benefit the Petawawa Military Family Resource Centre. KEYWORDS=SENATORS

====

Troops have a ball despite loss to former NHLers

It was supposed to be an exercise in boosting morale, but you wouldn't know it from the score.

Tiger Williams threw some playful punches and Ron Tugnutt nursed an iced cappuccino between the pipes yesterday as a group of former NHLers manhandled their Canadian Forces counterparts 7-1 in a friendly but hard-fought game of ball hockey.

No less a hockey icon than the Stanley Cup stood sentry over the proceedings from a shaded stoop nearby as Team Canada took on a badly outmatched Team Task Force.

Down by several goals, Cpl. Mike Loder of the 2nd Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., tried to rally his troops by getting into a scuffle with Williams, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy who's never shied away from a fight.

OPPRESSIVE HEAT

"I knew he was one of the harder Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play the game, and one of my definite idols," a beaming Loder said afterwards, dripping with sweat under the oppressive Afghanistan sun.

The fight, such as it was -- and Tiger wasn't pulling his punches, Loder said -- was no less one-sided than the game.

"He made more contact than me, I think," Loder grinned.

For his part, a tongue-in-cheek Williams was less than apologetic.

"You ever heard of a camel fly? They bite you in the face ... I was just trying to wipe it off, but he didn't realize I was coming to his aid," he said. KEYWORDS=WORLD

====

PoW pact comes under fire Monitoring won't stop torture, rights group warns

The Conservative government has inked a deal giving Canada unrestricted access to monitor prisoners in Afghanistan, but the pact was panned as a "frantic improvisation" that fails to protect detainees from torture and abuse.

The deal was announced by a Federal Court justice, who postponed a plea from Amnesty International to order the government to halt its transfer of prisoners.

Amnesty Canada's secretary general, Alex Neve, called the new provisions a step forward, but not a solution.

"You don't prevent torture in a country where it is as rampant and systematic as it is in Afghanistan by sending in monitors on an occasional basis. It simply doesn't work," he said.

Amnesty wants Canada to establish its own detention facilities in collaboration with Afghan authorities, to ensure human rights are upheld in custody. Paul Champ, a lawyer for the human rights organization, said there's resistance by the military because it fears a Canadian version of the Abu Ghraib scandal.

"They have the blueprints for it, they have the training for it, and they could do it," Champ said.

Col. Steven Noonan, who commanded the Canadian Task Force Afghanistan between August 2005 and March 2006, testified there are concerns such a centre could lead to a situation similar to the U.S. scandal in Iraq.

"The other concern that we do have is that without the proper training, without experience in it, the execution of that may go wrong as has been evidenced in my understanding of, for example, the Abu Ghraib situation," he said.

'DON'T KNOW THE RISK'

"Our folks have not been exposed to, historically, nor have been for at least my generation, to the holding of detainees or prisoners of war ... We don't know the risk -- the lack of knowledge that we have in the actual conduct of it is significant."

Despite denials from government officials that there were no confirmed reports of prisoner abuse, Noonan confirmed at least one case of a detainee who was "beaten" by the Afghan National Police after he was handed over by the Canadians.

"When they learned of this they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them. The ANP complied and the CF subsequently transferred the detainee to the provincial ANP," Noonan said in a sworn affidavit.

Opposition MPs criticized the government for signing the agreement in haste to quell a controversy, not out of concern for human rights.

"Here you have government that is trying to prevent a public embarrassment before our courts for them and they enter into a deal in the dark of the night in Afghanistan so they can be presented in morning here," said Liberal foreign affairs critic Ujjal Dosanjh.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said the government is providing effective oversight of prisoners by improving on a bad deal inked by the Liberal government.

"We have ensured that this enhanced agreement will make explicit Canada's expectation," he said. KEYWORDS=CANADA

====

Federal Tories losing touch

Besides being a political power play that is way offside, the Shane Doan affair is instructive on another level.

It shows just how sadly out of touch the federal Conservative party has become.

When the Conservatives broke their election promise on not taxing income trusts, most of their voters understood why and forgave them. The Tories did what they believed was best for the country and many economic analysts agreed that changing circumstances required a change in policy.

When the Tories fiddled with the equalization formula and gave the lion's share to Quebec, most of their voters understood why and forgave them.

In their eagerness to be viewed as more green than Kermit the Frog, the Tories announced a carbon tax. Most of their voters understood why and forgave them. If the Liberals had done this, there would have been screams of bloody murder in Alberta. Then again, a Tory carbon tax is likely better than what the Liberals would do under Stephane Dion.

When it comes to the Conservatives being uncharacteristically off-message on what happens to Taliban prisoners after our Canadian soldiers hand them over to Afghan authorities, most of their voters understand why and forgive them. After all, Afghanistan's government is in a bit of a mess.

Now that it's been shown the Liberals knew Taliban prisoners might get tortured way back in 2002 and decided to turn them over to Afghan authorities with no provision for even checking on their welfare, many voters recognize the Liberals were much worse on the file than the Conservatives -- and hypocrites besides.

But this latest swing by the Tories into shameful Liberal, NDP and Bloc territory in the Doan affair will not be forgiven so easily. It is not good for the country, for the party, for decency or for anything.

All politically attuned Canadians know that for power all politicians in Canada must pander somewhat to Quebec. It is simply a necessity. Most of us can live with some of that.

But trying to score political points on the back of an upstanding, honourable young hockey star playing his heart out for his country on a volunteer basis in Moscow is akin to a cheap shot for many Conservatives. This will stick in their craws for a long time.

Yesterday, Conservative members of the Commons' official languages committee -- including the five Conservatives who supported a Bloc motion to summon Hockey Canada officials to yesterday's hearing -- tried to soften their message and show support for Captain Canada. It was too little, too late.

They should have voted against the motion. Period. First, Doan categorically denies having called a French-Canadian linesman a "f---ing Frenchman." The fact that he is known not to swear and actually uses the word "fudge" on the ice at times of frustration would appear to back him up.

In addition, Doan was cleared by the NHL more than a year ago on this almost two-year-old incident.

If there is ever a time when French and English come together most beautifully in this country, it is on the ice. The political arena tends to muck up the whole thing.

The Tories are plummeting in the polls because they no longer know who they are or what they stand for and voters know it.

They should stand up for decency and this country. Always. Shane Doan stands for both. By voting to question his captaincy the Conservatives prove unquestioningly how offside they have skated in their blind pursuit of power.

====

Afghan detainees deal inked

Canada has signed a rewritten prisoner-transfer agreement with Afghan authorities amid a raging controversy over the alleged torture of some detainees.

But critics say it won't prevent abuse and they want the Conservative government to do more.

The deal, inked early yesterday in Kabul, came just before a Federal Court judge was set to hear arguments in Ottawa for an interim injunction banning the transfer of detainees.

The new arrangement allows Canadian officials greater access to insurgents turned over to the Afghans by Canadian soldiers. Among its provisions is a guarantee captured fighters can be interviewed in private without the intimidating presence of their Afghan jailers.

The government negotiated the deal despite insisting the allegations of torture are false. The Conservatives hope it will put an end to two weeks of bad press over their confusing and contradictory statements on the detainee issue.

"What we have done is enhance the 2005 agreement -- that is exactly what people were calling for," said Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.

But Amnesty International, which launched the Federal Court challenge on behalf of detainees, said the new deal isn't good enough.

"Canada is still not complying with its international obligations," said spokesperson Alex Neve.

"This agreement does not sufficiently protect people from the risk of torture after being transferred and that's the bottom line."

Human rights groups note prisoners often don't admit to having been tortured -- especially when they're still in jail -- out of fear of more torture.

The only solution, Neve said, is for Canada or NATO to establish a detention facility where Afghan guards can be properly trained to respect human rights.

The Federal Court case has been put on hold pending further examination of the transfer agreement. In an affidavit filed with the court, Defence Department officials dismissed the notion of a Canadian-run detention facility, saying the army doesn't have the manpower or expertise.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the new deal merely formalizes commitments the government already has from the Afghans.

"We have access (to prisons) and can get information whenever we want it," he said in Vancouver. He also repeated the allegations of torture are "unsubstantiated" -- but there has been no investigation into the claims.

The Bloc Quebecois suggested it was happy with the new deal. But Liberal Leader Stephane Dion agreed with Amnesty's argument prisoners should be kept out of Afghan hands and NATO should investigate claims.

It's the second time the government has announced the deal. Last week, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said officials had reached an agreement to allow access to the detainees. But a day later, Harper said a deal remained to be formalized.

The agreement comes despite Harper assuring the House of Commons the old deal was working well. KEYWORDS=NATIONAL

====

Afghan prison deal Unrestricted access to detainees

The Conservative government has inked a new deal that gives Canada unrestricted access to monitor prisoners in Afghanistan, but the pact was swiftly panned as a "frantic improvisation" that fails to protect detainees from torture and abuse.

The agreement was announced by a Federal Court justice, who postponed a plea from Amnesty International to order the federal government to halt its transfer of prisoners.

Amnesty Canada's secretary general Alex Neve called the new provisions a step forward, but not a solution. "You don't prevent torture in a country where it is as rampant and systematic as it is in Afghanistan by sending in monitors on an occasional basis. It simply doesn't work," he said.

Amnesty wants Canada to establish its own detention facilities in collaboration with Afghan authorities, to ensure human rights are upheld in custody.

But Paul Champ, a lawyer for the human rights organization, said there's resistance by the military because it fears a Canadian version of the Abu Ghraib scandal. "They have the blueprints for it, they have the training for it, and they could do it," he said.

Col. Steven Noonan, who commanded Canadian Task Force Afghanistan between August 2005 and March 2006, testified there are concerns such a centre could lead to a situation similar to the U.S. prison scandal in Iraq.

"The other concern that we do have is that without the proper training, without experience in it, the execution of that may go wrong as has been evidenced in my understanding of, for example, the Abu Ghraib situation," he said under cross-examination.

And despite repeated past denials from government officials that there were no confirmed reports of prisoner abuse, Noonan confirmed at least one case of a Canadian detainee who was "beaten" by the Afghan National Police after he was handed over.

"When they learned of this they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them. The ANP complied and the CF subsequently transferred the detainee to the provincial ANP," he said in an affidavit.

Opposition MPs criticized the government for signing the agreement in haste to quell a controversy, not out of concern for human rights.

"Here you have government that is trying to prevent a public embarrassment before our courts for them and they enter into a deal in the dark of the night in Afghanistan," said Liberal foreign affairs critic Ujjal Dosanjh.

But Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said the government is providing effective oversight of prisoners by improving on a bad deal inked by the previous Liberal government. KEYWORDS=CANADA

====

Federal Tories losing touch

Besides being a political power play that is way offside, the Shane Doan affair is instructive on another level.

It shows just how sadly out of touch the federal Conservative party has become.

When the Conservatives broke their election promise on not taxing income trusts, most of their voters understood why and forgave them. The Tories did what they believed was best for the country and many economic analysts agreed that changing circumstances required a change in policy.

EQUALIZATION

When the Tories fiddled with the equalization formula and gave the lion's share to Quebec, most of their voters understood why and forgave them.

In their eagerness to be viewed as more green than Kermit the Frog, the Tories announced a carbon tax. Most of their voters understood why and forgave them. If the Liberals had done this, there would have been screams of bloody murder in Alberta. Then again, a Tory carbon tax is likely better than what the Liberals would do under Stephane Dion.

When it comes to the Conservatives being uncharacteristically off-message on what happens to Taliban prisoners after our Canadian soldiers hand them over to Afghan authorities, most of their voters understand why and forgive them. After all, Afghanistan's government is in a bit of a mess.

Now that it's been shown the Liberals knew Taliban prisoners might get tortured way back in 2002 and decided to turn them over to Afghan authorities with no provision for even checking on their welfare, many voters recognize the Liberals were much worse on the file than the Conservatives - and hypocrites besides.

But this latest swing by the Tories into shameful Liberal, NDP and Bloc territory in the Doan affair will not be forgiven so easily. It is not good for the country, for the party, for decency or for anything.

QUEBEC FACTOR

All politically attuned Canadians know that for power all politicians in Canada must pander somewhat to Quebec. It is simply a necessity. Most of us can live with some of that.

But trying to score political points on the back of an upstanding, honourable young hockey star playing his heart out for his country on a volunteer basis in Moscow is akin to a cheap shot for many Conservatives. This will stick in their craws for a long time.

Yesterday, Conservative members of the Commons' official languages committee -- including the five Conservatives who supported a Bloc motion to summon Hockey Canada officials to yesterday's hearing -- tried to soften their message and show support for Captain Canada. It was too little, too late.

They should have voted against the motion. Period. First, Doan categorically denies having called a French Canadian linesman a "f---ing Frenchman." By virtue of the fact that he is known not to swear and actually uses the word "fudge" on the ice at times of frustration would appear to back him up.

In addition, Doan was cleared by the NHL more than a year ago on this almost two-year-old incident.

If there is ever a time when French and English come together most beautifully in this country, it is on the ice. The political arena tends to muck up the whole thing.

PLUMMETING

The Tories are plummeting in the polls because they no longer know who they are or what they stand for and voters know it.

They should stand up for decency and this country. Always. Shane Doan stands for both. By voting to question his captaincy the Conservatives prove unquestioningly how offside they have skated in their blind pursuit of power.

====

Letters to the Editor Column

I completely agree with Kerry Diotte's column advocating the abandonment of bar closing times. If people could simply leave when they were ready to leave, there wouldn't be a horde trying to get taxis all at the same time on Whyte Avenue. Another solution to the shortage of taxis is to simply remove the cap on the number of cab licences in the city and let the free market do its work.

Tanner Waldo

(That would be a big help.)

I am a landlord. If the government is going to get their noses in my business of renting a condo so I don't gouge, they had better also watch the price of gas for my car and home as well. There's gouging going on there. Remember years back when we had to give TVs away to get people to rent? Now the tide has turned. The market should decide what we can rent our places for, not government. I do not gouge nor intend to.

Brad Kerbick

(Good on you. Others do gouge.)

I am not opposed to the city ridding the boulevards and light poles of illegal signs. Coun. Bryan Anderson says they distract motorists. I don't disagree with that either. I just wonder about the giant TV set at the corner of Calgary Trail and Whitemud Drive. I think it does a lot more distracting than a real estate sign or one for a garage sale.

Bruce Smid

(Yes, those are seriously distracting.)

I read the Sun online and the same article has been there for months. The article, written by Bill Warder is titled, "Get curb appeal in your home." Do you think we can have new information to read in the home design section for a change ?

B. Marion

(Thanks. We've alerted the editor.)

Re: Letter writer who learned valuable lessons on his reserve. If the Alexander First Nation reserve is so great why did you not stay there and pass on your great learnings to the younger generations so they could become better people instead of relying on handouts from the government?

Tysin Wiggins

(Personal choice, we're guessing.)

RE: Letter writer Robert MacKay's quote. "What kind of idiot would take one of Canada's most important and irreplaceable symbols into a war zone?" I say: What kind of idiot would worry about it? How about the numerous men and women we have sent over there in the past five years? How about those who died and the hundreds of wounded? It took a metal cup to get you worked up about Afghanistan? Safe enough for our troops but not safe enough for Stanley? Get real. If you put an inanimate object over the worth of a soldier then you don't know what country you're in, because it can't be mine.

J. Anderson

(A new twist on Stanley Cup fever.)

I cry every time I read your story regarding this four-year-old angel who didn't asked to be brought to this world to suffer sex abuse. The saddest part is the girl won't get any justice for what was done to her. Most likely the guardians will only get a slap on the hand and might even get her back soon again. We demand tougher justice for these kinds of individuals!

Linda Stewart

(We'll see. The trial continues.)

This is the final straw for these clowns who make up city council. Fining Edmontonians for putting up illegal garage sale signs because they distract motorists? Unlike advertising plastered all over city transit buses? It's just another tactic to get more money out of citizens so councillors can cover their inefficient money- management practices. No problem. The October civic election is coming up soon.

James C. Fowler

(Vote the bums out.)

====

NHL heroes give troops ball they can handle

A team of Canadian NHL veterans has triumphed handily over a task force of battle-hardened soldiers in a chippy game of Afghanistan ball hockey.

Under a blistering sun, a group of Canadian hockey heroes faced off against Team Task Force, with hundreds of fans cheering them on.

With the Stanley Cup on display, players such as Bob Probert, Mark Napier and Yvon Lambert put on a show for the crowd, handling the squad of soldiers 7-1.

It was so hot that midway through the third period, goaltender Ron Tugnutt had an iced cappuccino delivered to him in the crease.

Legendary enforcer Tiger Williams was also up to his old tricks, taunting the referees and getting into a playful scrap with Cpl. Mike Loder of the 2nd Newfoundland Regiment.

The game followed a morale-boosting visit by the Stanley Cup on Wednesday.

Hockey legends and Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier escorted the holy grail of hockey. KEYWORDS=NATIONAL

====

Prisoner pact panned Suggestion of Canadian-operated jails conjures fears of Abu Ghraib

The Conservative government has inked a new deal that gives Canada unrestricted access to monitor prisoners in Afghanistan.

The pact, however, was swiftly panned as a "frantic improvisation" that fails to protect detainees from torture and abuse.

The agreement was announced by a Federal Court justice, who postponed a plea from Amnesty International to order the federal government to halt transfer of prisoners.

Amnesty Canada's secretary general Alex Neve called the new provisions a step forward, but not a solution.

"You don't prevent torture in a country where it is as rampant and systematic as it is in Afghanistan by sending in monitors on an occasional basis," he said.

Amnesty wants Canada to establish its own detention facilities in collaboration with Afghan authorities, to ensure human rights are upheld.

But Paul Champ, a lawyer for the human rights organization, said there's resistance by the military because it fears a Canadian version of the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Col. Steven Noonan, who commanded the Canadian Task Force Afghanistan between August 2005 and March 2006, testified there are concerns such a centre could lead to a situation similar to the U.S. prison scandal in Iraq.

"The other concern we have is that without the proper training, without experience in it, the execution of that may go wrong as has been evidenced in my understanding of, for example the Abu Ghraib situation," he said under cross-examination.

And despite repeated past denials from government officials that there were no confirmed reports of prisoner abuse, Noonan confirmed at least one case of a Canadian detainee who was "beaten" by the Afghan National Police after he was handed over.

Opposition MPs criticized the government for signing the agreement in haste to quell a controversy, not out of concern for human rights.

"Here you have government that is trying to prevent a public embarrassment before our courts for them and they enter into a deal in the dark of the night in Afghanistan so they can be presented in morning here," said Liberal foreign affairs critic Ujjal Dosanjh.

But Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said the government is providing effective oversight of prisoners by improving on a bad deal inked by the previous Liberal government. KEYWORDS=NATIONAL

====

We must clean up our own backyard

It comes in stages--first it's denial which then morphs into trivialization.

Sometimes the two are blended, with hopes of building public tolerance for the normally unacceptable.

It seems to be working.

When Ottawa's own foreign affairs officials tell their bosses Afghan suspects handed over by our troops were possibly subject to extrajudicial executions, torture and disappearance, a sizable section of the populace heaves a shrug, with some even applauding.

This blinkered, sandbox mentality has almost run its course south of the border, but many are willing to embrace it here, after the fact. War has a predictable way of coarsening thought, discourse and eviscerating standards, and Canadians are no exception.

Public proponents of the manly torturing and killing of helpless captives -- yes, we now have them -- argue we must accept cultural realities in an alien land.

This, from the same people who once brandished the theory Canadians are in Afghanistan to help lift them out of this nasty brutishness.

Now it's "our armed scumbags will torture and murder their disarmed scumbags."

If this is the best we can expect from our Afghan allies, then what exactly are our troops fighting for?

Will we remain there forever as babysitters?

Whatever genuine humanitarian work they do is now tainted, particularly when our leaders dismiss what human rights observers and their own staff tell them.

Never mind those we turn over to the tender mercies of our dungeonkeepers are untried suspects, in a country where detainment of the innocent is not uncommon.

Detainee abuse and our trivialization of it undermines the mission in a host of ways, not the least by invigorating the Taliban, who'll be encouraged to fight harder against Canadians rather than be captured.

It also sends a message to Afghan hearts and minds that we're a willing party to the abuses and corruption that have made their government so unpopular.

And so much for our righteous indignation if Canadian aid workers or troops captured by the Taliban were tortured in response. It doesn't bode well for our troops when they're associated with acts such as a U.S. air strike last week that Afghan President Hamid Karzai insists killed 51 civilians.

Those backing Canada's troops and the Afghan mission should be at the forefront of condemning counterproductive atrocity.

Peter MacKay tells us this week we're fighting for "the rule of law" in Afghanistan, while his Tory colleagues condone shredding it.

The government representing the side Canada's taken in Afghanistan's civil war recently passed an amnesty for its warlord members, absolving them of all manner of war crimes. Has anybody confronted Stephen Harper on the merits of dying for a government that would surrender to Taliban-like atrocities?

Top soldier Rick Hillier reports his troops are miffed the issue's detracting from their mission. No kidding -- and they should blame both the current Tory and previous Liberal governments.

Last fall, I asked Canadian Maj.-Gen. Ivan Fenton, a senior NATO commander in Afghanistan, for his views on the wretchedness of his Kabul government allies.

"It's an unavoidable reality -- that country's been at war for 30 years," he replied.

Precisely -- and we've been told by Fenton's colleagues to expect decades more.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government must chuckle at MacKay hectoring them over civil liberties denied a Canadian national held by Beijing on terror charges.

They'll tell him to clean up his own Afghan back yard before meddling in the affairs of yet another country.

With our political leaders taking belated action only after being exposed, we've yet to see any proof of that.

====

Federal Tories losing touch

Besides being a political power play that is way offside, the Shane Doan affair is instructive on another level.

It shows just how sadly out of touch the federal Conservative party has become.

When the Conservatives broke their election promise on not taxing income trusts, most of their voters understood why and forgave them. The Tories did what they believed was best for the country and many economic analysts agreed that changing circumstances required a change in policy.

EQUALIZATION

When the Tories fiddled with the equalization formula and gave the lion's share to Quebec, most of their voters understood why and forgave them.

In their eagerness to be viewed as more green than Kermit the Frog, the Tories announced a carbon tax. Most of their voters understood why and forgave them. If the Liberals had done this, there would have been screams of bloody murder in Alberta. Then again, a Tory carbon tax is likely better than what the Liberals would do under Stephane Dion.

When it comes to the Conservatives being uncharacteristically off-message on what happens to Taliban prisoners after our Canadian soldiers hand them over to Afghan authorities, most of their voters understand why and forgive them. After all, Afghanistan's government is in a bit of a mess.

Now that it's been shown the Liberals knew Taliban prisoners might get tortured way back in 2002 and decided to turn them over to Afghan authorities with no provision for even checking on their welfare, many voters recognize the Liberals were much worse on the file than the Conservatives - and hypocrites besides.

But this latest swing by the Tories into shameful Liberal, NDP and Bloc territory in the Doan affair will not be forgiven so easily. It is not good for the country, for the party, for decency or for anything.

QUEBEC FACTOR

All politically attuned Canadians know that for power all politicians in Canada must pander somewhat to Quebec. It is simply a necessity. Most of us can live with some of that.

But trying to score political points on the back of an upstanding, honourable young hockey star playing his heart out for his country on a volunteer basis in Moscow is akin to a cheap shot for many Conservatives. This will stick in their craws for a long time.

Yesterday, Conservative members of the Commons' official languages committee -- including the five Conservatives who supported a Bloc motion to summon Hockey Canada officials to yesterday's hearing -- tried to soften their message and show support for Captain Canada. It was too little, too late.

They should have voted against the motion. Period. First, Doan categorically denies having called a French Canadian linesman a "f---ing Frenchman." By virtue of the fact that he is known not to swear and actually uses the word "fudge" on the ice at times of frustration would appear to back him up.

In addition, Doan was cleared by the NHL more than a year ago on this almost two-year-old incident.

If there is ever a time when French and English come together most beautifully in this country, it is on the ice. The political arena tends to muck up the whole thing.

PLUMMETING

The Tories are plummeting in the polls because they no longer know who they are or what they stand for and voters know it.

They should stand up for decency and this country. Always. Shane Doan stands for both. By voting to question his captaincy the Conservatives prove unquestioningly how offside they have skated in their blind pursuit of power.

====

Yup, partisan political lunacy

Peter Hynes Whitby, Ont.

* The polar cap is disappearing, the rain forest, too. Polar bears and harp seals - among too many other species - are endangered.

Gas prices are inexcusably high, yet we drive SUVs. Our top general may have made a serious error on prisoner rendition in Afghanistan.

A generation from now, Canadians will look back and say: "Thank God our grandparents made Shane Doan a top priority."

ADDED SEARCH TERMS:

GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Canada

SUBJECT TERM:hockey; political

PERSONAL NAME: Shane Doan

====

Keeping watch, keeping time

Jamie Swift Kingston When I saw the photograph yesterday of Rick Hillier indulging in manly horseplay with a subordinate in Kandahar, I noticed the chunky timepiece the general was sporting (Top Soldier Changes Tack, Expresses Doubt On Deal - May 3). It reminded me of the old saying, often repeated when foreign troops from rich lands undertake operations against ragged local insurgents. The latter like to say: "They have the watches, we have the time."

ADDED SEARCH TERMS:

GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Afghanistan; Canada

SUBJECT TERM:foreign policy; strife

====

Keeping watch, keeping time

Joan Forsey Toronto * Can anyone explain why the Liberals in Parliament assume Taliban prisoners are telling the truth, and the government and military are lying?

ADDED SEARCH TERMS:

GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Afghanistan; Canada

SUBJECT TERM:foreign policy; strife

====

Keeping watch, keeping time

Paul A. Philcox lieutenant-colonel (retired) Duncan, B.C.

* Afghanistan is a medieval country. Its prisons are rough at the best of times. Although Canadian troops uphold the Geneva Conventions, they do not apply to the Taliban. I would really like to see The Globe, the Liberal Party and the NDP start behaving like loyal Canadians instead of defeatist Taliban lapdogs.

ADDED SEARCH TERMS:

GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Afghanistan; Canada

SUBJECT TERM:foreign policy; strife

====

History meets the new politics

RICK SALUTIN What a joke. Everyone uses Second World War imagery to make their political points. Why didn't Ed Morgan of the Canadian Jewish Congress object in 1990 when the first George Bush called Saddam Hussein worse than Hitler for invading Kuwait? Didn't that show an "insensitivity to context and history," as he wrote this week to the PM and the National Post after Green Party Leader Elizabeth May quoted George Monbiot saying that leaders who fail to meet the global warming threat are worse than Neville Chamberlain? Among the leaders he named was Stephen Harper, who replied bizarrely all week to questions on torture in Afghanistan by denouncing Elizabeth May and waving the Morgan letter.

For that matter, why didn't the PM denounce colleague Stockwell Day on the same grounds for accusing Liberals in 2002 of being Chamberlains instead of Churchills? Who owns this stuff? Who gets a veto on how history's images are deployed? What if someone mentions the Battle of the Bulge in a speech about diet plans? Is that insensitive to history and context? I'm not trivializing. Many people lost family members in that battle. They'll surely react, but it doesn't mean the image is unavailable for the use of others and other generations.

This whole thing is about generations. Each era has to choose its own challenges. There are now generations of Canadians not born when Hitler died in his bunker. An entire cohort doesn't recall the red menace or the Berlin Wall. That doesn't mean they don't care; my experience is they do - they want to honour the past and learn from it. But at what point does Hitler cease to be our sole metaphor for evil and move into a gallery beside Genghis Khan and Attila the Hun, making room, as it were, for new horrors? At that point, it's legitimate to survey the past for ways in which it can be used to throw light on the present. For many today, the epochal challenge is climate and the environment, as it was the rise of fascism in the 1930s.

In this respect, the appeasement analogy for global warming is entirely apt. Both Prince Charles and the British Foreign Secretary have used it recently. The level of destruction foreseen is apocalyptic, easily rivalling the 50 million deaths of the Second World War.

It won't be due to wars or extermination camps - that's why it's an analogy, not a replica. But the "gathering storm" (Churchill's term) is, if anything, more ominous than it was when Chamberlain returned from Munich in 1938 declaring "peace in our time." Of course, no one can know. That's why the floor is open for discussion. And Chamberlain thought he'd done something commendable, just as the PM thinks now. I'm not surprised he doesn't like the comparison.

Let the debate begin.

I'd say Elizabeth May is part of that new political generation, which is more a mentality than a demographic. Their politics is issue-centred rather than ideological and it's more inclusive than divisive. They tend to act through grassroots movements or NGOs instead of traditional parties. Elizabeth May spent most of her life in that kind of politics before heading into the electoral version. I'd say, by allying with her, Stephane Dion showed a respect for this new kind of politics without suggesting he means to change much in the "old" party he leads.

You can see the threat of this new politics in the reactions of oldsters in the parties and media, to the Dion-May deal ("Insiders shocked by Green-Grit deal"). You hear similar aggravation about electoral reform and proportional representation. PR would suit the new politicals just fine, but columnists and editorial writers would have to refill their cliche bags. People don't like change.

Stephen Harper appeared furious all week at Elizabeth May, perhaps because instead of draining off Liberal and NDP votes, she went and endorsed Stephane Dion. But fury becomes the PM. He hasn't had a snit this good since Belinda Stronach crossed the floor.

rsalutin@globeandmail.com

ADDED SEARCH TERMS:

GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Canada

SUBJECT TERM:political; ethics; history; environment; global warming

PERSONAL NAME: Elizabeth May

====

PRISONERS IN AFGHANISTAN: HOW THE DEAL WAS DONE When things got ugly in Ottawa, Kabul extended an olive branch

BRIAN LAGHI, DANIEL LEBLANC, GLORIA GALLOWAY With a report from Campbell Clark OTTAWA The Afghan government approached Canada to rejig a deal for the handover of detainees as Ottawa faced a maelstrom of criticism last week, sources have told The Globe and Mail.

The approach came April 25, after the conclusion of a particularly raucous session of Question Period and just before Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor blurted out at a foreign affairs committee meeting that a deal between the government and Afghanistan was at hand.

It was the third day running that the Tories had faced a pummelling in the House of Commons.

"The Afghan government talked to us, and then Gordon said we might have a deal," said a source. "It was after QP, before committee." The source would not say who in the Afghan government made the approach.

The agreement that emerged included a series of enhancements in the protection of detainees transferred by Canadian soldiers to Afghan control. The detainee issue has been controversial, especially after Mr. O'Connor was obliged to apologize for misleading the House on the issue and after the emergence of government documents in which references to torture and poor treatment of detainees had been blacked out.

Mr. O'Connor's dramatic announcement came as the Prime Minister's Office began taking a more active hand in the issue.

The PMO stepped in after a series of ministerial contradictions over torture allegations and who was assigned to monitor the detainees.

A source within the government said the mixed messages originated with bureaucrats in both the Department of National Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs. The issue has been made more difficult to co-ordinate, he said, because of the fact that Afghanistan is halfway around the world and the mission requires input from a number of different departments.

By that same Wednesday, the Prime Minister's Office demanded that it be provided with accurate information from all departments.

From that point on, the PMO and the Privy Council Office have handled all the messaging because, as the government official explained, they are the only ones that can co-ordinate a broad range of material across different branches.

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, Brigadier-General Tim Grant checked in on the same day with Afghan authorities to follow up on a Globe and Mail investigation into the treatment of detainees in local jails.

That same day, Mr. Harper was clearly emboldened as he launched his toughest attack against the Liberals and the other opposition parties for raising the issue.

"The fact of the matter is this: The real problem is the willingness of the Leader of the Liberal Party and his colleagues to believe, to repeat and to exaggerate any charge against the Canadian military as they fight these fanatics and killers who are called the Taliban.

It is a disgrace," Mr. Harper said to a roar of applause from the Conservative caucus in the Commons.

But even after that point, the normally focused communications from the Conservatives seemed to be in disarray, with the Prime Minister and at least five other ministers answering questions on the matter.

On Sunday, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan told CTV's Question Period that "we have yet to see one specific allegation of torture." On Monday, one of his cabinet colleagues, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, said Correctional Service Canada officials tasked with helping improve Afghanistan's jails were told by two prisoners that they had been tortured.

When Mr. Van Loan was asked after the Conservative caucus meeting Wednesday to explain where his messaging had originated, he remained completely mum.

Instead, he grinned broadly at reporters and ducked into his office.

Mr. Day has been equally silent in recent days on the matter outside of the House of Commons. When the Public Security Minister wanted to speak to reporters this week about the RCMP's handling of DNA testing, he did so only on the condition that he not be asked questions about Afghanistan.

Yesterday, as the deal was reached, Afghanistan's ambassador to Ottawa, Omar Samad, could not confirm the moment the deal was clinched, but praised the result of the long negotiations.

However, another official familiar with the agreement told The Globe that it was approved in Ottawa Tuesday, then sent to Kabul to be signed. The Afghan government accepted all parts of the new arrangement without objection, the source said.

In Vancouver yesterday, Mr. Harper seemed baffled as to why the story was still making headlines.

"Why has the story gone on? I'm not sure we've heard any new information beyond the unsubstantiated allegations from a handful of former Taliban prisoners," he told reporters. "Apparently the opposition has little else to do these days than attack the good work that the Canadian troops are doing." New provisions The new supplement to Canada's agreement with Afghanistan on the transfer of people detained by Canadian soldiers contains a number of provisions not included in the arrangements other countries, such as Britain and the Netherlands, have made. Among them: Paragraph 7 In order to facilitate ongoing access and capacity building projects by the Government of Canada, the Afghan Government will hold detainees transferred by Canadian Forces in a limited number of facilities.

Paragraph 8 The AIHRC [Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission] and officials of the Government of Canada will have full and unrestricted access to detention facilities where detainees transferred by Canadian Forces are held.

Paragraph 9 During such access, representatives will, upon request, be permitted to interview detainees in private, without Afghan authorities present.

Paragraph 10 In the event that allegations come to the attention of the Government of Afghanistan that a detainee transferred by the Canadian Forces to Afghan authorities has been mistreated, the following corrective action will be undertaken: the Government of Afghanistan will investigate allegations of abuse and mistreatment and prosecute in accordance with national law and internationally applicable legal standards; the Government of Afghanistan will inform the Government of Canada, the AIHRC and the ICRC of the steps it is taking to investigate such allegations and any corrective action taken.

ADDED SEARCH TERMS:

GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Canada; Afghanistan

SUBJECT TERM:defence; foreign policy; strife; prisoners; human rights; political; text

PERSONAL NAME: Gordon O'Connor

====

PRISONERS IN AFGHANISTAN: ANALYSIS Deal represents a stunning shift Canadian officials given sweeping powers in some of the new monitoring provisions

PAUL KORING OTTAWA After more than a year of defending a flawed detainee-transfer deal, the Harper government abruptly stopped fighting yesterday and signed a sweeping new pact with Afghanistan, containing unmatched safeguards against torture and abuse.

The new deal transforms Canada into the standard-bearer for all foreign countries in the monitoring of transferred prisoners in Afghanistan.

Instead of a detainee-transfer practice that amounted to quickly getting rid of them and then ignoring their fate, the new deal explicitly accepts Canada's ongoing responsibilities to prisoners it hands over. In several key aspects, the deal exceeds the safeguards in other NATO arrangements, including the much-vaunted British and Dutch agreements. Some of its monitoring provisions are so intrusive as to verge on interfering with Afghan sovereignty.

Canadian diplomats, military officers and "others empowered to represent the Government of Canada will have full and unrestricted access to any persons transferred to Afghan authorities while such persons are in custody." It's a stunning shift from the December, 2005, deal that provided for no Canadian monitoring of detainees put into Afghanistan's notorious gulag.

For more than a year, the government didn't know, or didn't want to know, the fate of detainees, even as it insisted that all was well.

"If there is something wrong with their treatment, the Red Cross or Red Crescent would inform us," Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor claimed, at least until the ICRC and Canada's Foreign Affairs Department flatly contradicted him, pointing out that the agreement included no such reporting back to Canada.

For the first time, Canada can now veto the onward transfer of detainees. For instance, Afghanistan could not deliver an al-Qaeda suspect to the United States "without the prior written agreement of the Government of Canada." Even more sweeping is the right of Canadian officials to have unrestricted access in all "detention facilities where detainees transferred by Canadian Forces are held." The deal also calls on the Afghans to hold transferred detainees in "a limited number of facilities," a tough restriction in Afghanistan, where there are literally hundreds of jails, ranging from local lockups run by warlords to sprawling prisons and some secret, and reportedly brutal, detention centres. That change should turn monitoring of detainees' fate from wishful thinking into a practical reality.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan, in what amounts to a tacit admission that its security forces may be compromised by torture, has accepted that Canadian monitors be allowed to interview transferred detainees privately. In effect, the secret police colonel -- who may terrify a hapless captive -- can be turfed out of the cell by Canadian monitors.

That provision alone is a measure of just how far Afghanistan was willing to go to accommodate Canada's newfound need for a landmark pact.

Perhaps the most far-reaching element of the new agreement, albeit one not directly concerned with safeguarding any particular detainee from the whippings and eye-gouging and other assorted tortures that have been reported in Afghanistan's prisons, is a commitment by both countries to "co-operate closely" on "improving the Afghanistan corrections and justice systems." A year ago, when the Canadian safeguards were first shown to be threadbare compared with the Dutch and British deals, Mr. O'Connor insisted that "nothing in the agreement . . . prevents Canada from determining the fate of prisoners, so there is no need to make any change in the agreement." Then after apologizing to Parliament for getting it wrong about the ICRC last month, Mr. O'Connor said follow-up monitoring could be subcontracted to the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

But that cash-strapped, short-staffed NGO, while keen, admitted it couldn't gain entry into some of the prisons run by Afghanistan's intelligence police, let alone check on individual detainees. Meanwhile, Canada acknowledged it hadn't even passed along the names of transferred detainees to the AIHRC.

ADDED SEARCH TERMS:

GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Canada

SUBJECT TERM:defence; foreign policy; strife; prisoners; human rights; political

====

PRISONERS IN AFGHANISTAN: NEW SAFEGUARDS Ottawa unveils stringent rules to monitor treatment of detainees

CAMPBELL CLARK AND PAUL KORING With a report from Graeme Smith in Kandahar OTTAWA Stephen Harper's Conservative government bowed to a storm of criticism at home and abroad, striking a new deal with far more stringent safeguards on the treatment of detainees transferred to Afghanistan's jails by Canadian troops.

After more than a year of insisting that a 2005 agreement was working fine, a new deal allowing Canadian diplomats unfettered access to prisoners was suddenly produced in court yesterday as Ottawa fought off a legal challenge by human-rights groups seeking to stop the transfer of detainees to Afghan jails.

The deal, signed in Kabul yesterday, provides not only direct access for Canadian monitoring - similar to agreements obtained by the British and Dutch - but also guarantees that Afghanistan will notify Canada before any are tried, and that detainees will be kept in a limited number of jails to make monitoring easier.

"We have enhanced the 2005 agreement. That is exactly what people were calling for," Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mackay said in the House of Commons yesterday. "We have improved upon it." Although the Canadian government can now say it has the most stringent safeguards of any NATO country operating in Afghanistan, it was not boasting.

For more than a year, the government had defended the 2005 agreement, signed by Chief of the Defence Staff General Rick Hillier when the previous Liberal government was in office. And it has struggled to express a clear policy since The Globe and Mail reported on April 23 allegations from 30 detainees of abuse by Afghan authorities.

Mr. MacKay and Government House Leader Peter Van Loan, the two ministers tasked with delivering the government message in the House, were at pains to insist the 13-clause deal was only a minor change to the original 13-clause agreement.

Mr. Van Loan repeatedly said that the 2005 agreement was still in place, and the new deal merely made the Afghan government's responsibilities on detainees "explicit." Neither the ministers nor Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor faced reporters to answer questions. The government did not release the text of the deal officially until 5:30 p.m., even though it had been produced as an exhibit in Federal Court at 9:30 a.m., because the documents in English and Dari had not yet been translated into French.

"They formalize commitments that Afghanistan's been willing to give us, that we have access and can get information whenever we want it," Mr. Harper said of the new deal's provisions.

But he argued that the existing deal was working well and that opposition criticism was "based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners" and had detracted from the work of Canadian troops.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said the government should now admit it had been wrong.

"Will the government admit that if it has concluded a new agreement, it's because the previous one was a lamentable failure because it did not respect the Geneva Convention and did not protect prisoners transferred to Afghan authorities?" he asked in Parliament.

Amnesty International, which had launched the court challenge to stop Canada's transfer of detainees to Afghan jails, said the new deal was an improvement but that monitoring is not good enough because reports of torture are pervasive.

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said the new agreement is flawed because it stipulates that Afghan authorities will investigate allegations of abuse and report to Canada.

"I think now it's time to have an agreement with NATO and to be sure that this will be done with NATO and the government of Afghanistan together," Mr. Dion said. He argued that NATO needs to develop a co-ordinated effort to monitor detainees.

A NATO spokesman said that the alliance has no plans for joint efforts to monitor detainees.

In Kandahar, Gen. Hillier told reporters last night that he had nothing to say about the agreement, signed by new Canadian Ambassador Arif Lalani.

"I don't know what the details are. I've seen some drafts and things they prepared and so I don't know if in the last hours as they got to culmination whether it changed or not. I'll wait till I see the final script." The first news that the Harper government had struck a new detainee transfer deal came as a whispered bombshell in the Supreme Court building yesterday morning.

Instead of an expected Federal Court confrontation between lawyers for the government and rights groups seeking an injunction halting future detainee transfers, a surprise filing only minutes before the hearing was due to start included a faxed copy of the deal.

Mr. Justice Michael Kelen revealed key elements, and before adjourning, said he believed the government wouldn't have acted without the challenge brought by Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, who asked the court to review the constitutionality of transferring prisoners into a system rife with abuse and torture.

Calling the surprise delivery of the new deal a "major development," he said: "This wouldn't have happened if this court case hadn't been happening."

ADDED SEARCH TERMS:

GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Canada

SUBJECT TERM:defence; foreign policy; strife; prisoners; human rights; political

PERSONAL NAME: Stephen Harper

ORGANIZATION NAME: Conservative Party of Canada

====

The pact on detainees

Canada has a new agreement with Afghan authorities over the treatment of prisoners handed to them. It is a very good agreement, equal to those obtained by the governments of Britain and the Netherlands in most ways, and superior in two significant ways -- a require- ment that the Afghan government investigate allegations of abuse to international standards of justice and in consultation with the Canadian government and human-rights monitors, and an assurance that Canada or its representative may interview detainees in private. This latter clause especially comes perilously close to usurping Afghan sovereignty, illustrating the lengths to which that country's government was prepared to go to keep Canadian soldiers on the ground there. From a Canadian standpoint, then, it is satisfactory. All the safeguards required have been provided, and then some. The question now is whether the agreement is worth the paper it is written on.

To date, every promise made by Canada, and by Afghanistan, on the treatment of detainees has proven illusory. For a year, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor misled Parliament over the role of the Red Cross in monitoring detainees. Then assurances that representatives of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission were able to safeguard the human rights of the prisoners on Canada's behalf turned out to be untrue.

These were serious failures which have undermined public confidence in a critical mission. Afghan officials have been duplicitous, making extravagant claims of adherence to the Geneva Conventions and offering covenants for detainees to be "treated humanely," and then engaging in all manner of abuse and torture in their medieval lockups. As an illustration of just how serious Afghan governments are about their undertakings to the international community, consider that Afghanistan ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture in 1985, when under communist rule, and remained a party to it even under the Taliban.

Human-rights reports have repeatedly cited abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan under the government of President Hamid Karzai. It is evidently too much to expect that a country which until 2001 was inured to barbarism would suddenly become the poster nation for universally protected rights standards, especially given that it is in the midst of a bloody civil war against a great evil. But every effort must still be brought to bear on the Karzai government to improve its record.

Canada cannot get into the business of warehousing suspected Taliban, and the prisoners should not be transported to this country. But there is more that Canadians can do beyond crossing their fingers that Afghan officials will break with national tradition and uphold agreements that seek to end the practice of torture.

This country could, as Amnesty International has long argued, urge its partners in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to work with the Afghans to establish a detention facility, run by Afghans but under the tutelage of Western experts, as a model for the country's nascent justice and correctional system. The ultimate goal of the mission to Afghanistan was always meant to be nation-building. What better lesson for an emerging democracy than adherence to human-rights standards and the rule of law.

ADDED SEARCH TERMS:

GEOGRAPHIC NAME: Afghanistan; Canada

SUBJECT TERM:foreign policy; defence; strife; prisoners; human rights

====

Military says detainee was beaten by Afghans; Affidavit From Colonel; Disclosure comes After Denials From Government

OTTAWA - Afghan police beat up a prisoner given to them by the Canadian Forces, according to the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghanistan, which emerged yesterday in documents filed in the Federal Court.

Colonel Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in a sworn affidavit filed with the court as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop all further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

Col. Noonan's disclosure comes after repeated denials by the Conservative government that it had no specific examples that any detainee transferred by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities was later subject to abuse or torture. It is unclear whether Col. Noonan's report was received by anyone in Ottawa or remained a military matter.

The detainee issue has mushroomed into a major political problem for Stephen Harper and several of his Conservative Cabinet ministers. The Prime Minister continued yesterday to dismiss allegations of prisoner abuse.

Mr. Harper blamed his political opponents for making it an issue.

"This is based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners and I think, quite frankly, it has detracted unnecessarily from the good work Canadian men and women are doing in the field in Afghanistan under dangerous circumstances," Mr. Harper told a news conference in Mission, B.C.

But court documents, including a transcript of Col. Noonan's cross-examination earlier this week, already filed in Federal Court revealed that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

"In this case, the CF learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP," Col. Noonan said in his affidavit, using the acronym for Afghan national police. "When we learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them."

The Afghans turned the prisoner over to the Canadians, who then gave him to provincial Afghan police authorities.

When Amnesty International lawyer Paul Champ tried to get more details on the incident -- when it happened, what injuries were sustained, whether the Afghan police were charged -- federal lawyer J. Sanderson Graham shut down all further questioning of the incident citing "national security" interests.

"It threatens Canada's national security to know when the Canadian Forces observed local Afghan national police beating a detainee that they transferred to that unit?" Mr. Champ asked.

"We object to any questions on this incident generally," Mr. Graham replied.

Citing reports by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, Amnesty and the civil liberties association have charged that detainees transferred by Canada to the Afghans are subject to torture in its prisons, and that the transfers should be halted. They also question why the military does not build its own prison camps for detainees.

Yesterday's hearing was unexpectedly adjourned because court was told the Canadian and Afghanistan governments had signed a revision of their prisoner transfer agreement earlier that morning.

Justice Michael Kelen announced the key details of the agreement that expands on the controversial December 2005 deal originally signed by Canada and Afghanistan.

Under yesterday's amended deal, Canadian officials will be granted unrestricted access to all Afghan prisons, where its prisoners are transferred, and they will be able to conduct private interviews with prisoners away from the eyes of their Afghan jailers.

"What happened this morning is a major development; it probably wouldn't have happened if this court case wasn't happening," Judge Kelen said from the bench before adjourning the hearing.

The court challenge will continue at a yet-to-be-determined date, once lawyers from both sides have had a chance to crossexamine relevant witnesses on the amended agreement signed in Kabul.

Meanwhile, Peter MacKay, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday the enhanced agreement with the Afghan government was better than the original version signed by the previous Liberal government in December, 2005.

"We have done what was asked by others of Canadians. We are going to see that that is implemented by the Afghan government," Mr. MacKay said.

Senior Liberals played down their party's role in negotiating the original agreement to transfer detainees to Afghan authorities.

The Liberals said yesterday they have never denied crafting the original deal, which was signed in 2005 by General Rick Hillier, Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff.

"The issue is not about what happened in 2005," said Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre.

He said the "embarrassment" over the issue has been caused by the Conservative government's failure to improve on the agreement and ensure the Geneva convention banning torture is respected.

Omar Samad, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, said yesterday's amendments now give Canadian officials more access to his county's prisons than any other NATO country.

NATIONALPOST.COM

KEEP CURRENT

Read more news and analysis on the Afghan detainee scandal at nationalpost. com

- - -

MONITORING THE DETAINEES

How four countries deal with prisoners transferred to Afghan custody.

CANADA

Official policy: The detainee transfer agreement signed in 2005 stipulates prisoners will be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention. It also stipulated that the International Committee of the Red Cross would have the right to visit prisoners at anytime in custody. However, it contained no provisions for the monitoring of prisoners once handed over. Canadian officials have now negotiating a deal to be granted full access to visit detainees. Number of detainees transferred: Estimated at 40 plus. Gordon O'Connor,Minister of National Defence, has refused to disclose numbers. However, Amir Attaran, a University of Ottawa law professor, said he has acquired documents that suggest a total of 40 prisoners were transferred between 2002 and May 2006.

UNITED KINGDOM

Official policy: The U.K. has an agreed memorandum of understanding with the Afghan government which covers the transfer of detainees to local authorities, according to a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman. The spokeswoman said handling of prisoners "follows established U.K. guidelines, which are consistent with the principles of the Geneva Convention." Officials also have the right to visit transferred prisoners. There have been no indications of any problems so far, according to the Ministry of Defence. Number of detainees transferred: Not known.

UNITED STATES

Official policy: Before transferring a prisoner, the U.S. must "first receive adequate assurances that the individuals will be treated humanly," Lieutenant-Colonel Todd Vician, a Pentagon spokesman, said. The U.S. will refuse to transfer a prisoner to any country where "it is more likely than not that they will be tortured." Countries which receive prisoners from the United States must also guarantee that they will "mitigate the threat [the prisoners] pose to the international community." Number of detainees transferred: "In the hundreds," according to Lt. -Col. Vician

NETHERLANDS

Official policy:Dutch officials have a right to make unlimited visits to transferred prisoners to ensure they are not being mistreated. Number of detainees transferred: Not known.

KEYWORDS:

PRISONERS OF WAR; WAR; TERRORISM; INTERNATIONAL LAW

====

Afghanistan war veteran on a missionfor children; Sporting Life 10K Run; Corporal to help send young cancer patients to camp

A combat medic, back in Canada between Afghanistan tours, will be running in this Sunday's Sporting Life 10-kilometre run.

Tamar Freeman returned from serving near Kandahar city as a medical technician at the end of February.

"Being in the military, it is something we do anyway. So it's been really helpful that I'm already a runner," she said. "Go to Afghanistan some time. If you're being chased it's remarkable how far you can run."

Corporal Freeman will be joining more than 9,000 others at the Sporting Life run in downtown Toronto.

The run, sponsored by the National Post, will raise money for Camp Oochigeas, a yearround camp for children suffering from cancer in Muskoka, near Lake Rosseau.

Money is raised for the camp through registrations, donations and fundraising by participants, said Camp Oochigeas executive director, Rob Drynan. They expect to raise $250,000 this year.

Corp. Freeman is raising donations at Camp Petawawa, where she has been stationed since returning from Afghanistan at the end of February.

She joined the military as a reservist in 1990 and became a full-time soldier three years ago. Her first rotation overseas started in August, 2005, when she was placed in a small base near Kandahar city. She saw immediate action with her first patrol, part of Operation Medusa, the summer offensive by Canadian, U.S. and British forces.

"We were under the guns the whole time," she said.

She said her unit was first to respond to a lot of action near Kandahar city: "When there was an explosive device that hit one of our convoys our reaction force had to go to the site.

"We always got to the casualties first."

Growing up, Corp. Freeman was inspired to join the military by the paraphernalia and stories her father Harvey collected as a pilot in the air force reserves during the 1940s.

"We had bits of uniform, we had photos, we had his tales of the road. As a kid it's pretty interesting. Even as an adult I still think it's kind of neat."

Serving in the military isn't all the two have in common. Mr. Freeman will be joining his daughter at the starting line this weekend. They have raced together in the past, most recently for a 10 kilometre race in Ottawa in 2005.

"The two of us are runners. She's been in several marathons before. I'm 79 and I'm going to do it, so I guess you could say it's in the family," he said.

Corp. Freeman says she's a frequent racer, doing several 10 kilometre races, and two or three half-marathons in the last few years. She said she's looking forward to running again with her father and her friend and fellow soldier, Shirley de Souza, who is stationed in Ottawa.

Mr. Freeman said they're already looking for another race to enter. He'd like to get several in before his daughter returns to Afghanistan next year.

- Anyone interested in registering can do so in person at Sporting Life's location at 2665 Yonge St. until Saturday.

KEYWORDS:

0

====

Detainees not protected by Geneva convention

Re: Their defence is a bit tortured, Andrew Coyne, May 2.

Surely, the real question about the (so far) unenlightening parliamentary row over our detainees in Afghanistan is whether they are covered by the Geneva Convention. It is my understanding the detainees would be covered if they were an organized militia fighting as military units. But the last time I checked, they were engaged mainly in suicidal acts of terrorism against innocent civilians, having put together very few overt organized military actions.

To my mind they are the barbaric, internal foes of a legitimate government that is seeking to liberate the people, from the brutal Taliban reign of terror.

Raymond Heard, Toronto.

KEYWORDS:

0

====

Afghan police beat detainee, soldier says

OTTAWA -- Afghan police beat up a prisoner given to them by the Canadian Forces, according to the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghanistan which emerged Thursday in documents filed in the Federal Court.

Col. Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in a sworn affidavit filed with the court as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop all further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

Noonan's disclosure comes after repeated denials by the Conservative government that it had no specific examples that any detainee transferred by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities was later subject to abuse or torture. The detainee issue has mushroomed into a major political problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several of his Conservative cabinet ministers.

Harper continued Thursday to dismiss allegations of prisoner abuse and blamed his political opponents for making it an issue.

"This is based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners and I think, quite frankly, it has detracted unnecessarily from the good work Canadian men and women are doing in the field in Afghanistan under dangerous circumstances," the prime minister told a news conference in Mission, B.C.

But court documents, including a transcript of Noonan's cross-examination earlier this week, already filed in Federal Court revealed that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

"In this case, the CF learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP," Noonan said in his affidavit, using the acronym for Afghan national police. "When we learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them."

The Afghans turned the prisoner over to the Canadians who then gave him to provincial Afghan police authorities.

When Amnesty lawyer Paul Champ tried to get more details on the incident -- when it happened, what injuries were suffered, whether the Afghan police were charged -- federal lawyer J. Sanderson Graham shut down all further questioning of the incident citing "national security" interests.

In a surprise twist, Thursday's hearing was adjourned because court was told that the Canadian and Afghanistan governments had signed a revision of their prisoner transfer agreement earlier that morning.

Justice Michael Kelen announced the key details of the agreement that expands on the controversial December 2005 deal originally signed by Canada and Afghanistan.

Under Thursday's amended deal, Canadian officials will be granted unrestricted access to all Afghan prisons where its prisoners are transferred, and they will be able to conduct private interviews with prisoners away from the eyes of their Afghan jailers.

"What happened this morning is a major development; it probably wouldn't have happened if this court case wasn't happening," Kelen said from the bench before adjourning the hearing.

The court challenge will continue at a yet-to-be-determined date.

====

Forget weapons of war, let's find instruments for peace

How good are armies at making peace?

If the experience of Iraq is any guide, the purchase of battle tanks for the Canadian military may improve safety for our troops but will do little to end the war in Afghanistan. While nobody questions the courage or sacrifices of the soldiers, it is certainly reasonable to question the wisdom of the war itself.

For all its costs, war has a poor history of providing an effective path to peace. Wars seldom solve problems; more often they cause them.

Those who watched the recent events in France honouring the men who died at Vimy Ridge and elsewhere must have asked themselves: what was really gained by the loss of thousands of Canadian lives, and the millions of French, German and British soldiers who were slaughtered in the First World War? Was the result really worth the sacrifice?

Rather than referring to the war's end as a victory, would it not be more true to call the whole event an appalling miscalculation? A giant lose/ lose proposition? In four years, the flower of Europe's youth was wiped out by shells, bombs and machine guns in an orgy of self-destruction. But if the war was bad, the attempt at making peace was little better.

The ink was hardly dry on the 1919 treaty when the imperial powers carved up the Middle East in ways which continue to threaten stability today. And the harsh conditions imposed by the allies on Germany led to the rise of Hitler and all the horrors of the Second World War.

In Korea, some years later, the military failed to make peace. Although the United States possessed a nuclear deterrent at the time, the U.S. army was unable or unwilling to sign a peace treaty. After 50 years, the divided country still remains a problem.

In Vietnam, for all the billions of dollars spent on its military and the loss of more than 58,000 American lives, the U.S. war machine was not victorious. More recently, as the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have proven, massive military superiority can win battles, but force alone is not enough to keep the peace.

Rather than buying tanks or expecting national armies to keep us safe, the real challenge facing humanity is the survival of life on Earth. Problems such as global warming, polluted oceans, and shortages of oil and water, cannot be solved by war or weapons.

We must learn to share with others, since armies fighting over scarce resources will only destroy the very things we hold most sacred.

Ray Cunnington lives in Dundas. He is a Quaker and a member of the Hamilton Culture of Peace Network.

====

Afghan police beat up prisoner: officer; Canadian offers first evidence of abuse in affidavit

Afghan police beat up a prisoner given to them by the Canadian Forces, according to the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghanistan which emerged Thursday in documents filed in the Federal Court.

Col. Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in a sworn affidavit filed with the court as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop all further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

Noonan's disclosure comes after repeated claims by the Conservative government that it had no specific examples that any detainee transferred by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities was later subject to abuse or torture. The detainee issue has mushroomed into a major political problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several of his Conservative cabinet ministers.

Harper continued Thursday to dismiss allegations of prisoner abuse and blamed his political opponents for making it an issue. "This is based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners and I think, quite frankly, it has detracted unnecessarily from the good work Canadian men and women are doing in the field in Afghanistan under dangerous circumstances," the prime minister told a news conference in Mission, B.C.

But court documents, including a transcript of Noonan's cross-examination earlier this week, already filed in Federal Court revealed that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

"In this case, the CF learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP," Noonan said in his affidavit, using the acronym for Afghan national police. "When we learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them."

The Afghans turned the prisoner over to the Canadians who then gave him to provincial Afghan police authorities.

In a surprise twist, Thursday's hearing was adjourned because court was told that the Canadian and Afghanistan governments had signed a revision of their prisoner transfer agreement earlier that morning.

Under Thursday's amended deal, Canadian officials will be granted unrestricted access to all Afghan prisons, where its prisoners are transferred, and they will be able to conduct private interviews with prisoners away from the eyes of their Afghan jailers.

The court challenge will continue at a yet-to-be-determined date.

====

Former NHLers win one-sided battle

It was supposed to be an exercise in boosting morale, but you wouldn't know it from the score.

Tiger Williams threw some playful punches and Ron Tugnutt nursed an iced cappuccino between the pipes Thursday as a group of former NHL heroes manhandled their Canadian Forces counterparts 7-1 in a friendly but hard-fought game of ball hockey.

No less a hockey icon than the Stanley Cup stood sentry over the proceedings from a shaded stoop nearby as Team Canada took on a badly outmatched Team Task Force in front of more than 100 Canadian and coalition soldiers at Kandahar Airfield.

Down by several goals, Cpl. Mike Loder of the 2nd Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., tried to rally his troops by getting into a scuffle with Williams, the legendary Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy who's never shied away from a fight.

"I knew he was one of the harder Toronto Maple Leafs to ever play the game, and one of my definite idols," a beaming Loder said afterwards, dripping with sweat under the typically oppressive Afghanistan sun.

"As we were picking at each other, I kind of figured he wanted to go for a little brawl."

The fight, such as it was -- and Tiger wasn't pulling his punches, Loder said -- was no less one-sided than the game.

"He made more contact than me, I think," Loder grinned. "This is Tiger -- he'd really do it. That's good, though."

For his part, a tongue-in-cheek Williams was less than apologetic.

"You ever heard of a camel fly? They bite you in the face . . . I was just trying to wipe it off, but he didn't realize I was coming to his aid," he said as he signed autographs and posed for photos with fans.

"It's OK. He's young, he'll learn as things go on. But he's battle-ready, I'll tell you that."

So untested was Tugnutt, the former goaltender for the defunct Quebec Nordiques, that he placed an order for an iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons that was delivered to his net midway through the third period.

====

Companies back reservists; 35 organizations pledge to assure jobs safe if they serve

Unable to do its job in Afghanistan without reservists, the Canadian military hopes to convince employers to let people take military leave without forcing them to choose between their country and their job.

The effort seems to be successful in Windsor, where the largest number of businesses so far in Canada will all sign up at once today to pledge their support.

"It's mission critical," said Outreach Officer Capt. Lori Boudreau, who came from Ottawa for the event. "Canada can't do its job without reservists. It will be a very big issue in the next year-and-a-half as we look to send 600 reservists to Afghanistan in August 2008."

The Canadian Forces Liaison Council, created to lobby businesses and education institutions to extend military leave to reservists, will hold a signing ceremony today at the University of Windsor.

It will recognize at least 35 local organizations that have agreed to give their employees leave and assure them their jobs will be there when they return.

The event runs from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at the U of W's Jackman Dramatic Arts Centre.

The CFLC, a civilian organization supported by military members, has held similar events from Vancouver to St. John's, N.L.

Boudreau, one of the council's military support members, said Windsor's event will see more businesses sign on at once than anywhere else. Ceremonies in other cities haven't been half as large.

"This one is over 30, it's by far the largest ever," said Boudreau. "We've had fabulous, fabulous support from Windsor."

About 5,000 employers across Canada have signed on. But many others haven't, said Boudreau.

"People want to serve, but sometimes they can't if they don't have employer or educator support," she said. "It's been an issue for some soldiers. But we're really getting that turned around. Many employers now are very supportive."

Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital is one of the local organizations showing its support. CEO Neil McEvoy said the hospital has flexibility because of large staff numbers and jobs that don't run nine to five.

"It's the right thing to do," he said. "Especially when they have a medical background. It's such a good fit. If they volunteer their time to join the military, I think it is exactly the right thing to do to support them."

That kind of support is important, Boudreau said, because reservists play a key role in Canadian military operations. About 25 per cent of Canadian forces overseas are reservists.

"They're not a back-up," said Boudreau. "They are fully integrated, doing the same job side by side."

THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND

Saturday: Open house, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Maj. F.A. Tilston VC Armoury and Police Training Centre, 4007 Sandwich St., with building tours, vehicle displays and weapons effect simulator.

Sunday: Parade and Battle of the Atlantic memorial service, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at Dieppe Gardens. The Canadian Historical Aircraft Association will fly overhead.

All events are open to the public.

====

Afghan police beat prisoner handed over by Canadians, colonel's affidavit says; Amnesty International, B.C. Civil Liberties Association aims to end detainee transfers

OTTAWA -- Afghan police beat up a prisoner given to them by the Canadian Forces, according to the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghanistan which emerged yesterday in documents filed in the Federal Court.

Col. Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in a sworn affidavit filed with the court as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop all further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

Noonan's disclosure comes after repeated denials by the Conservative government that it had no specific examples that any detainee transferred by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities was later subject to abuse or torture. The detainee issue has mushroomed into a major political problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several of his Conservative cabinet ministers.

Harper continued yesterday to dismiss allegations of prisoner abuse and blamed his political opponents for making it an issue.

"This is based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners and I think, quite frankly, it has detracted unnecessarily from the good work Canadian men and women are doing in the field in Afghanistan under dangerous circumstances," the prime minister told a news conference in Mission.

But court documents, including a transcript of Noonan's cross-examination earlier this week, already filed in Federal Court revealed that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

"In this case, the CF learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP," Noonan said in his affidavit, using the acronym for Afghan national police. "When we learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them."

The Afghans turned the prisoner over to the Canadians who then gave him to provincial Afghan police authorities.

When Amnesty lawyer Paul Champ tried to get more details on the incident -- when it happened, what injuries were sustained, whether the Afghan police were charged -- federal lawyer J. Sanderson Graham shut down all further questioning of the incident citing "national security" interests.

"It threatens Canada's national security to know when the Canadian Forces observed local Afghan national police beating a detainee that they transferred to that unit?" Champ asked.

"We object to any questions on this incident generally," Graham replied.

Citing reports by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, Amnesty and the civil liberties association have charged that detainees transferred by Canada to the Afghans are subject to torture in its prisons, and that the transfers should be halted. They also question why the military does not build its own prison camps for detainees.

In a surprise twist, yesterday's hearing was adjourned because court was told that the Canadian and Afghanistan governments had signed a revision of their prisoner transfer agreement earlier that morning.

Justice Michael Kelen announced the key details of the agreement that expands on the controversial December 2005 deal originally signed by Canada and Afghanistan.

Under yesterday's amended deal, Canadian officials will be granted unrestricted access to all Afghan prisons, where its prisoners are transferred, and they will be able to conduct private interviews with prisoners away from the eyes of their Afghan jailers.

"What happened this morning is a major development; it probably wouldn't have happened if this court case wasn't happening," Kelen said from the bench before adjourning the hearing.

The court challenge will continue at a yet-to-be-determined date, once lawyers from both sides have had a chance to cross-examine relevant witnesses on the amended agreement signed in Kabul.

Earlier this week, Champ grilled Noonan about why Canadian troops do not build their own prison camps in Afghanistan given that the military has a published manual that gives detailed instructions of how to do this.

Noonan said the military had a concern that running their own camps would force them to redirect large numbers of troops to running such a facility.

"The other concern that we do have is that without proper training, without experience in it, the execution of that may go wrong as has been evidenced in my understanding of -- of, for example the Abu Ghraib situation," Noonan testified, referring to the scandal that rocked the U.S. military in Iraq three years ago over its abuse of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison it operated in Baghdad.

"Our folks have not been exposed to, historically, nor have been for at least my generation to the holding of detainees or prisoners of war, either one, in our generation," Noonan added. "We don't know the risk -- the lack of knowledge that we have in the actual conduct of it is significant."

====

U.S. military investigates claims of civilian deaths in battles with Taliban

WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The U.S. military has opened an investigation into allegations that scores of civilians were killed in fighting between U.S. and Taliban forces in Afghanistan, a senior U.S. military officer said yesterday.

UN and Afghan officials have said about 50 civilians were killed in fighting Friday and Sunday in the western province of Herat in which U.S. special operations forces called in air strikes and an AC-130 gunship attack on Taliban positions.

President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday said civilian deaths had reached "an unacceptable level" and Afghan patience was wearing thin.

The U.S. military has not acknowledged that any civilians were killed in the fighting in a remote valley in Herat's Shindand district. On Wednesday, a Pentagon spokesman said there would be no formal investigation unless civilian deaths were reported up the military chain.

====

Afghan beaten following transfer, officer says; Court documents reveal first evidence of abuse after Canada handed over prisoner

Afghan police beat up a prisoner given to them by the Canadian Forces, according to the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghanistan, which emerged yesterday in documents filed in the Federal Court.

Col. Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in a sworn affidavit filed with the court as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop all further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

Col. Noonan's disclosure comes after repeated assertions by the Conservative government that it had no specific examples that any detainee transferred by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities was later subject to abuse or torture. The detainee issue has mushroomed into a major political problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several of his Conservative cabinet ministers.

Mr. Harper continued yesterday to dismiss allegations of prisoner abuse and blamed his political opponents for making it an issue.

"This is based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners and I think, quite frankly, it has detracted unnecessarily from the good work Canadian men and women are doing in the field in Afghanistan under dangerous circumstances," the prime minister told a news conference in Mission, B.C.

But court documents, including a transcript of Col. Noonan's cross-examination earlier this week, already filed in Federal Court, revealed that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

"In this case, the CF learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP," Col. Noonan said in his affidavit, using the acronym for Afghan national police. "When we learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them."

The Afghans turned the prisoner over to the Canadians who then gave him to provincial Afghan police authorities.

When Amnesty lawyer Paul Champ tried to get more details on the incident -- when it happened, what injuries were sustained, whether the Afghan police were charged -- federal lawyer J. Sanderson Graham shut down all further questioning of the incident citing "national security" interests.

"It threatens Canada's national security to know when the Canadian Forces observed local Afghan national police beating a detainee that they transferred to that unit?" Mr. Champ asked.

"We object to any questions on this incident generally," Mr. Graham replied.

Citing reports by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, Amnesty and the civil liberties association have charged that detainees transferred by Canada to the Afghans are subject to torture in its prisons, and that the transfers should be halted. They also question why the military does not build its own prison camps for detainees.

In a surprise twist, yesterday's hearing was adjourned because court was told that the Canadian and Afghanistan governments had signed a revision of their prisoner transfer agreement earlier that morning.

Justice Michael Kelen announced the key details of the agreement that expands on the controversial December 2005 deal originally signed by Canada and Afghanistan.

Under yesterday's amended deal, Canadian officials will be granted unrestricted access to all Afghan prisons, where its prisoners are transferred, and they will be able to conduct private interviews with prisoners away from the eyes of their Afghan jailers.

"What happened this morning is a major development; it probably wouldn't have happened if this court case wasn't happening," Judge Kelen said from the bench before adjourning the hearing.

The court challenge will continue at a yet-to-be-determined date, once lawyers from both sides have had a chance to cross-examine relevant witnesses on the amended agreement signed in Kabul.

Earlier this week, Mr. Champ grilled Col. Noonan about why Canadian troops do not build their own prison camps in Afghanistan, given that the military has a published manual that gives detailed instructions on how to do this.

Col. Noonan said the military had a concern that running their own camps would force them to redirect large numbers of troops to running such a facility.

"The other concern that we do have is that without proper training, without experience in it, the execution of that may go wrong as has been evidenced in my understanding of -- of, for example, the Abu Ghraib situation," Col. Noonan testified, referring to the scandal that rocked the U.S. military in Iraq three years ago over its abuse of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison it operated in Baghdad.

"Our folks have not been exposed to, historically, nor have been for at least my generation, to the holding of detainees or prisoners of war, either one, in our generation," Col. Noonan added. "We don't know the risk. The lack of knowledge that we have in the actual conduct of it is significant."

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday the enhanced agreement with the Afghan government was better than the original version signed by the previous Liberal government in December 2005.

"We have done what was asked by others of Canadians. We are going to see that that is implemented by the Afghan government," Mr. MacKay said.

Senior Liberals yesterday downplayed their party's role in negotiating the original agreement to transfer detainees to Afghan authorities.

The Liberals said they have never denied crafting the original deal, which was signed in December 2005 by Chief of Defence Gen. Rick Hillier.

"The issue is not about what happened in 2005," said Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre.

He said the "embarrassment" over the issue has been caused by the Conservative government's failure to improve on the agreement and ensure the Geneva convention banning torture is respected.

Omar Samad, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, said yesterday's amendments now give Canadian officials more access to his county's prisons than any other NATO country.

Mr. Samad pledged that after being ravaged by a generation of war, Afghanistan would -- with the help of Canada and its allies -- rebuild its institutions and get rid of systemic abuse in its prisons.

"This process has started and will continue," Mr. Samad said.

But the head of Amnesty International Canada said that the new deal did not go far enough to stop abuse in Afghan prisons.

"You don't prevent torture in country where it is rampant and systematic, as it is in Afghanistan, by sending in monitors on an occasional basis. It simply doesn't work," said Alex Neve.

====

Afghan beaten following transfer, officer says; Court documents reveal first evidence of abuse after Canada handed over prisoner

Afghan police beat up a prisoner given to them by the Canadian Forces, according to the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghanistan, which emerged yesterday in documents filed in the Federal Court.

Col. Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in a sworn affidavit filed with the court as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop all further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

Col. Noonan's disclosure comes after repeated assertions by the Conservative government that it had no specific examples that any detainee transferred by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities was later subject to abuse or torture. The detainee issue has mushroomed into a major political problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several of his Conservative cabinet ministers.

Mr. Harper continued yesterday to dismiss allegations of prisoner abuse and blamed his political opponents for making it an issue.

"This is based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners and I think, quite frankly, it has detracted unnecessarily from the good work Canadian men and women are doing in the field in Afghanistan under dangerous circumstances," the prime minister told a news conference in Mission, B.C.

But court documents, including a transcript of Col. Noonan's cross-examination earlier this week, already filed in Federal Court, revealed that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

"In this case, the CF learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP," Col. Noonan said in his affidavit, using the acronym for Afghan national police. "When we learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them."

The Afghans turned the prisoner over to the Canadians who then gave him to provincial Afghan police authorities.

When Amnesty lawyer Paul Champ tried to get more details on the incident -- when it happened, what injuries were sustained, whether the Afghan police were charged -- federal lawyer J. Sanderson Graham shut down all further questioning of the incident citing "national security" interests.

"It threatens Canada's national security to know when the Canadian Forces observed local Afghan national police beating a detainee that they transferred to that unit?" Mr. Champ asked.

"We object to any questions on this incident generally," Mr. Graham replied.

Citing reports by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, Amnesty and the civil liberties association have charged that detainees transferred by Canada to the Afghans are subject to torture in its prisons, and that the transfers should be halted. They also question why the military does not build its own prison camps for detainees.

In a surprise twist, yesterday's hearing was adjourned because court was told that the Canadian and Afghanistan governments had signed a revision of their prisoner transfer agreement earlier that morning.

Justice Michael Kelen announced the key details of the agreement that expands on the controversial December 2005 deal originally signed by Canada and Afghanistan.

Under yesterday's amended deal, Canadian officials will be granted unrestricted access to all Afghan prisons, where its prisoners are transferred, and they will be able to conduct private interviews with prisoners away from the eyes of their Afghan jailers.

"What happened this morning is a major development; it probably wouldn't have happened if this court case wasn't happening," Judge Kelen said from the bench before adjourning the hearing.

The court challenge will continue at a yet-to-be-determined date, once lawyers from both sides have had a chance to cross-examine relevant witnesses on the amended agreement signed in Kabul.

Earlier this week, Mr. Champ grilled Col. Noonan about why Canadian troops do not build their own prison camps in Afghanistan, given that the military has a published manual that gives detailed instructions on how to do this.

Col. Noonan said the military had a concern that running their own camps would force them to redirect large numbers of troops to running such a facility.

"The other concern that we do have is that without proper training, without experience in it, the execution of that may go wrong as has been evidenced in my understanding of -- of, for example, the Abu Ghraib situation," Col. Noonan testified, referring to the scandal that rocked the U.S. military in Iraq three years ago over its abuse of inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison it operated in Baghdad.

"Our folks have not been exposed to, historically, nor have been for at least my generation, to the holding of detainees or prisoners of war, either one, in our generation," Col. Noonan added. "We don't know the risk. The lack of knowledge that we have in the actual conduct of it is significant."

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday the enhanced agreement with the Afghan government was better than the original version signed by the previous Liberal government in December 2005.

"We have done what was asked by others of Canadians. We are going to see that that is implemented by the Afghan government," Mr. MacKay said.

Senior Liberals yesterday downplayed their party's role in negotiating the original agreement to transfer detainees to Afghan authorities.

The Liberals said they have never denied crafting the original deal, which was signed in December 2005 by Chief of Defence Gen. Rick Hillier.

"The issue is not about what happened in 2005," said Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre.

He said the "embarrassment" over the issue has been caused by the Conservative government's failure to improve on the agreement and ensure the Geneva convention banning torture is respected.

Omar Samad, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, said yesterday's amendments now give Canadian officials more access to his county's prisons than any other NATO country.

Mr. Samad pledged that after being ravaged by a generation of war, Afghanistan would -- with the help of Canada and its allies -- rebuild its institutions and get rid of systemic abuse in its prisons.

"This process has started and will continue," Mr. Samad said.

But the head of Amnesty International Canada said that the new deal did not go far enough to stop abuse in Afghan prisons.

"You don't prevent torture in country where it is rampant and systematic, as it is in Afghanistan, by sending in monitors on an occasional basis. It simply doesn't work," said Alex Neve.

====

The fools on the Hill

Hockey. That is the game you play with a curved stick. It involves frantic chases up and down a rink, punctuated by comic, slow-motion punch-ups, right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Hockey is the central sacrament in the liturgy of Canadian life. It is part of our common heritage, as unifying as the CBC (OK, the national railway), as enduring as the Rockies. It is what we are fighting for in Afghanistan, if I understand Gen. Rick Hillier, who brought the Stanley Cup to the desert this week to encourage Canada's soldiers. Boys and girls all over Canada grow up dreaming of hockey, said Hillier. (It used to be just boys, but this is one politically astute general.)

But the best thing about hockey, is that everyone can be an expert. Especially in Ottawa, because Ottawa -- thanks to the skating Senators, not the snoozing ones -- is now a big-league hockey town, albeit a bilingual, bicultural, federal hockey town. It even has a team -- hard-working, underpaid, discreet but, astonishingly, winning.

It was only a matter of time before the politicians got involved. Hockey, official languages and a bunch of preening, puffed-up amateurs looking to enhance their profiles and win favour in Quebec: a dream match.

Unfortunately, young Shane Doan's reputation had to be sacrificed in the process. An incident 17 months ago, when Doan was alleged to have called a referee "f-------- French", was dredged up lately by the Bloc Quebecois, who demanded that Doan be removed as captain of Team Canada, which is currently competing in the world championships in Russia.

Doan was cleared by Hockey Canada after the incident, and there is plenty of testimony that swearing and racist instincts are foreign to the Alberta-born player, a devout Christian. But trashing reputations -- as former deputy RCMP Commissioner Barbara George can attest -- is not a punishable offence in the game of politics. Indeed, it is routine in many Parliamentary committees.

Protected by privilege, politicians otherwise incapable of running a Legion bingo night play prosecuting attorney, nailing hapless witnesses with unproven accusations and recycled rumours. The MPs have no interest in what witnesses, even expert witnesses, say -- the point is to embarrass political opponents, however obliquely. Witnesses are left protesting their innocence to deaf ears, cut off before they can complete a sentence, then abandoned to repair the damage done their families and careers.

Racist slurs are odious, of course, and prejudice against French-speaking Canadians still lurks beneath our civilized veneer -- and even in less civilized places, like professional hockey. So MPs are not wrong to challenge federal support for organizations that countenance intolerance.

But they better have their facts straight. In testimony before the Commons official languages committee yesterday, Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson suggested it wasn't Doan, but another player, a non-Canadian, who uttered the slur. Or, possibly, Doan's sarcastic remark to a fellow player over a bad call -- "Four French referees, figure it out" -- was misheard. (Doan later regretted not saying "four Quebec referees.")

Either way, the man was cleared. In the absence of new evidence, that should be the end of it. Or is Doan to be penalized the rest of his life? Nicholson, who has known the young player for 14 years, says his strongest profanity is "fudge." Doan, who has offered to resign as captain of Team Canada, told reporters: "I spent 13 years trying to earn a reputation as someone who wouldn't say that."

Not inclined to let a little research get in the way of a political opportunity, however, the Bloc Quebecois demanded Hockey Canada be summoned to explain why someone who uttered "racist, xenophobic and anti-francophone" comments is captaining the national team. NDP Leader Jack Layton solemnly declared that the incident "cast a shadow" on amateur hockey. Liberal MP Denis Coderre tried to exploit the issue when he was campaigning last year, demanding that Doan apologize or be removed from Canada's 2006 Olympic team. (He and Doan are currently in court.) All week, the Conservatives said not a word in defence of Doan.

Then the public weighed in and the politicians ran for cover. The committee concluded with a rousing endorsement of Team Canada. Conservative MP Guy Lauzon lamented that "people are playing politics with this." People? What people?

This time, the politicians got caught, because they chose a high- profile victim and because their little show trial attracted a huge audience. But the same kind of abuse happens every day. And it's a disgrace.

Susan Riley's column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail: sriley@thecitizen.canwest.com

====

Good news in Afghanistan

There is some good news out of Afghanistan about lives saved and hope regained. Despite the many problems that continue to make life a struggle in that country, mothers and babies are healthier than they were before the NATO intervention.

Any comparison with the Taliban era sets a low bar, of course. In those days, women had little access to doctors. If they managed to get appointments, the doctors might never actually examine them. It isn't easy to get a physical from behind a burqa.

Maternal and infant mortality are among the most important measures of development in any country. Where basic health services do not exist or are allocated in a discriminatory manner, mothers and babies die preventable deaths.

According to a Johns Hopkins University study, the infant mortality rate six years ago was 165 per 1,000 live births. Last year, the infant mortality rate was 135 per 1,000 births. In other words, fewer babies are dying each year in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

The number is still high. By comparison, Canada has an infant mortality rate of fewer than five deaths per 1,000 live births. Afghans have many challenges, but at least 20 per cent of pregnant women today are attended by skilled health workers compared with five per cent in 2003.

The fact that women are getting healthier in Afghanistan is a sign that women are also gaining more freedom. Things are getting better there -- not quickly enough by anyone's measure, but they are getting better. This study discredits any argument that under the Taliban there was at least order and stability. There's no justification for a regime that watched dispassionately as babies, and often their mothers, died in delivery.

====

Police beat detainee, Canadian officer says; Prisoner transfer agreements revised

Afghan police beat a prisoner who was handed over by Canadian Forces, it emerged yesterday in documents filed in Federal Court.

The documents provide the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghanistan.

Colonel Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in an affidavit.

It was filed as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

Noonan's disclosure comes after the Conservative government repeatedly said it had no specific examples of transferred detainees being subjected to abuse or torture.

The detainee issue has mushroomed into a major political problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several of his cabinet ministers.

Harper continued to dismiss allegations of prisoner abuse yesterday and accused his political opponents of making it an issue.

"This is based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners and I think, quite frankly, it has detracted unnecessarily from the good work Canadian men and women are doing in the field in Afghanistan under dangerous circumstances," Harper told a news conference in Mission, B.C.

But court documents - including a transcript of Noonan's cross-examination this week - reveal that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

"In this case, the CF learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP" - the Afghan national police, Noonan said in his affidavit.

"When we learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them."

The Afghans turned the prisoner over to the Canadians, who then took him to provincial Afghan police authorities.

When Amnesty lawyer Paul Champ tried to get more details, federal lawyer J. Sanderson Graham cited national security interests and shut down all further questioning about the incident.

"It threatens Canada's national security to know when the Canadian Forces observed local Afghan national police beating a detainee that they transferred to that unit?" Champ asked.

"We object to any questions on this incident generally," Graham replied.

Citing reports by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, Amnesty and the civil liberties association charge that detainees transferred by Canada to the Afghans are subject to torture in prisons.

They want the transfers stopped, and question why the military does not build its own prison camps.

In a surprise twist, yesterday's hearing was adjourned because court was told that the Canadian and Afghanistan governments had signed a revision of their prisoner transfer agreement that morning.

Justice Michael Kelen announced key details of the agreement that expands on a 2005 deal signed by Canada and Afghanistan.

Under the amended agreement, Canadian officials will be granted unrestricted access to Afghan prisons and will be allowed to conduct private interviews with prisoners.

"What happened this morning is a major development; it probably wouldn't have happened if this court case wasn't happening," Kelen said from the bench before adjourning the hearing.

The court challenge will continue at a yet-to-be-determined date, once lawyers from both sides have had a chance to cross-examine relevant witnesses on the amended agreement signed in Kabul.

This week, Champ grilled Noonan about why Canadian troops do not build their own prison camps in Afghanistan - given that the military has a manual explaining how.

Noonan cited concerns about redirecting large numbers of troops to running such a facility.

"The other concern ... is that without proper training, without experience in it, the execution of that may go wrong as has been evidenced in my understanding of ... the Abu Ghraib situation," Noonan testified, referring to the inmate-abuse scandal that rocked the U.S. military in Iraq.

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday the enhanced agreement is better than the original signed by the previous Liberal government.

"We have done what was asked by others of Canadians. We are going to see that that is implemented by the Afghan government," MacKay said.

Senior Liberals downplayed their party's role in negotiating the original agreement.

"The issue is not about what happened in 2005," said defence critic Denis Coderre.

The "embarrassment" over the issue has been caused by the Conservative government's failure to improve on the agreement and ensure the Geneva convention banning torture is respected, he said.

Omar Samad, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada, said yesterday's amendments give Canada more access than any other NATO country to his county's prisons.

Samad pledged that after being ravaged by a generation of war, Afghanistan would - with help of Canada and its allies - rebuild its institutions and get rid of systemic abuse in its prisons.

"This process has started - getting rid of unlawful activities - and will continue," Samad said in an interview.

But the head of Amnesty International Canada said the new deal does not go far enough.

"You don't prevent torture in a country where it is rampant and systematic, as it is in Afghanistan, by sending in monitors on an occasional basis," Alex Neve said. "It simply doesn't work."

Ottawa Citizen

====

Afghan police beat prisoner, court learns

CNS Mike Blanchfield and Andrew Mayeda OTTAWA -- Afghan police beat up a prisoner given to them by the Canadian Forces, according to the first evidence of abuse of a detainee transferred by Canada to Afghanistan.

The incident emerged Thursday in documents filed in the Federal Court.

Col. Steve Noonan, a former task force commander in Afghanistan, disclosed the incident in a sworn affidavit filed with the court as part of the government's response to a legal challenge by Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association to stop all further transfers of detainees by the Canadian military to the Afghan government.

Noonan's disclosure comes after repeated denials by the Conservative government it had any specific examples that any detainee transferred by Canadian troops to Afghan authorities was later subject to abuse or torture. The detainee issue has mushroomed into a major political problem for Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several of his Conservative cabinet ministers.

Harper continued Thursday to dismiss allegations of prisoner abuse and blamed his political opponents for making it an issue.

"This is based on nothing more than a handful of unsubstantiated allegations from Taliban prisoners and I think, quite frankly, it has detracted unnecessarily from the good work Canadian men and women are doing in the field in Afghanistan under dangerous circumstances," the prime minister told a news conference in Mission, B.C.

But court documents, including a transcript of Noonan's cross-examination earlier this week, already filed in Federal Court revealed that a prisoner captured by Canadian troops was abused by the Afghans.

"In this case, the CF learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP," Noonan said in his affidavit, using the acronym for Afghan national police. "When we learned of this, they approached the local ANP and requested that the detainee be given to them." The Afghans turned the prisoner over to the Canadians who then gave him to provincial Afghan police authorities.

When Amnesty lawyer Paul Champ tried to get more details on the incident, federal lawyer J. Sanderson Graham shut down all further questioning of the incident citing "national security" interests.

"It threatens Canada's national security to know when the Canadian Forces observed local Afghan national police beating a detainee that they transferred to that unit?" Champ asked.

"We object to any questions on this incident generally," Graham replied.

Citing reports by the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and Canada's Foreign Affairs Department, Amnesty and the civil liberties association have charged that detainees transferred by Canada to the Afghans are subject to torture in its prisons, and that the transfers should be halted. They also question why the military does not build its own prison camps for detainees.

In a surprise twist, Thursday's hearing was adjourned because court was told that the Canadian and Afghanistan governments had signed a revision of their prisoner transfer agreement earlier that morning.

Justice Michael Kelen announced the key details of the agreement that expands on the controversial December 2005 deal originally signed by Canada and Afghanistan.

Under Thursday's amended deal, Canadian officials will be granted unrestricted access to all Afghan prisons, where its prisoners are transferred, and they will be able to conduct private interviews with prisoners away from the eyes of their Afghan jailers.

"What happened this morning is a major development; it probably wouldn't have happened if this court case wasn't happening," Kelen said from the bench before adjourning the hearing.

The court challenge will continue at a yet-to-be-determined date.

-- CanWest News Service

====

Harper willing to sacrifice national interest

William Neville William Neville The Harper government had an unhappy week, last week. On the issue of whether or not Canadian prisoners in Afghanistan were being tortured when turned over to Afghan officials, the government's position changed daily, through rounds of denial, reassurance, dismissal, then back to denial. Ultimately, the clearest answer -- improbable as it might seem -- came from Security Minister Stockwell Day who reported that Canadian corrections officials in Afghanistan had spoken to prisoners who claimed to have been tortured, but had seen no evidence of torture themselves. When it falls to the likes of Mr. Day to provide enlightenment on a matter that has the prime minister contradicting himself on a daily basis, you know the government is having an extraordinarily bad week.

In the circumstances, it was time to change the subject and at the weekend Mr. Harper attempted just that. In a speech in a small farming town south of Quebec City, Harper gave a remarkable speech which Canadians ought to read carefully. Canadian Press reporter Jonathan Monpetit wrote of this meeting: "Stephen Harper championed his 'open' brand of federalism in Quebec's rural heartland Saturday night, finding an echo in the province's newly emboldened autonomists...

Harper -- speaking exclusively in French -- painted himself as a defender of the Quebec nation, and the federal leader best positioned to fight the province's separatist forces." Harper was quoted as saying "Open federalism is what we did when we asked the Canadian Parliament to recognize that Quebecois form a nation within Canada." The Montreal Gazette reported Harper's pledge that "A re-elected Conservative government would lead a Canada ... 'strong, united and free, with a Quebec (that was) autonomous and proud.' " This rhetorical flourish invites two questions: Under a "re-elected Conservative government" which powers would an "autonomous" Quebec have, and which powers would remain those of a "strong and united" Canada? After all, trivial changes will infuriate Quebec autonomists, while substantial changes should be identified so the rest of the country knows what they face if they re-elect Harper.

Harper is also quoted as saying: "When you are a nation, it is perfectly natural to be a nationalist." This is an arresting statement on several levels. First, it is not something Harper is given to saying about Canada as a whole. He has never said that Canada is a nation and it is therefore natural for Canadians to be nationalists.

Indeed, on his record in matters like the Iraq war, softwood lumber, and Canada-U.S. relations generally, he gives every sign of being a continentalist, largely in thrall to the political values and ideas of the American right.

Harper's latching on to Quebec nationalism and the autonomy issue is hardly surprising: Given the Quebec election results, it was as predictable as the flowers that bloom in the spring. His remarks could readily be construed as little more than a pitch for the votes of Quebec nationalists. But the current crop of Quebec nationalists who find voice in the ADQ are not appeased by the acknowledgment of Quebec's status as a nation. With that acknowledgment they want national power, which is now exercised by the government of Canada, the transfer of which would reduce the federal government to barely managing traffic. Of course, every Quebec government since the 1960s has sought more power from Ottawa. The difference now is that their position, though the most radical (short of outright separation) is precisely what Harper has been advocating since his salad days in the Reform Party.

How, then, are we to construe these remarks? It may be relevant to note that Harper was speaking to an audience which included several newly elected members of the ADQ and many of their supporters. Indeed, a Conservative MP, Jacques Gourde, who was present for Harper's speech, emphasized that there are strong affinities between the ADQ and the federal Conservatives in that both represent a "third way" between the federalism of the Liberals and the separatism of the Parti Quebecois.

What is a third way that is neither federalism nor separatism? In an earlier time, some Quebec nationalists advanced hybrid models like "special status" or some kind of "associate state" status for Quebec. Maybe Harper plans to revive one of these notions, or to invent something else altogether. One has to ask, however, before Harper is given the nod to proceed, what is this new system he hopes to bring into being? Will it be one tailored exclusively for Quebec or for all our provinces and territories? On the models Harper has advocated in the past, Canada would be a nation -- if at all -- without a national government.

These are serious issues, made more serious by Harper's approach to governing this country. Few prime ministers in the modern era have been elected with the support of a majority of the electors, but most have tried -- by their own lights and with varying degrees of commitment and success -- to govern in the interests of the country as a whole. When it comes to Harper, however, it is very clear that he would quite happy to govern in the interests of the 40 per cent whose support would ensure him a majority government, and let the other 60 per cent go hang.

In the past, moreover, we have always had prime ministers who, notwithstanding differing visions of the country, saw Canada as one and whole. In Harper we have a man prepared to abandon Canada to regional tensions and to those many provincial politicians who endlessly demand more money and power. In this quagmire, who speaks for Canada? wnwfp@mts.net

------------------