OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs officials have been called to testify before a probe into Canada's transfer of Afghan detainees - despite a court ruling that limited the inquiry's ability to delve beyond military ranks.
The Military Police Complaints Commission has sent summonses to a total of 25 people from the Canadian Forces, National Defence and Foreign Affairs, said Nancy-Ann Walker, a spokeswoman for the commission.
Of these, eight are willing to give pre-hearing interviews to commission counsel, and some have already done so.
Among these is said to be Foreign Affairs diplomat Richard Colvin, whose testimony before a Commons committee reignited the detainee affair in December. Colvin said most prisoners Canada handed over to the Afghan intelligence service were tortured, a claim the federal government and military commanders have denied.
The complaints commission is to begin the public phase of its work into the simmering detainee controversy later this month when it deals with preliminary motions.
Amnesty International has complained to the commission that military police failed to probe officers who directed the transfer of detainees to Afghan authorities knowing they might be tortured.
Last September the Federal Court curtailed the military watchdog's plans.
Justice Sean Harrington ruled the commission could look into allegations that police didn't do their jobs, but not broader issues involving conduct of the military at large.
That raised questions about whether the commission could examine what other departments, such as Foreign Affairs, knew about the transfers.
Still, a few of the 25 witnesses to be called - their names are not yet public - are employees of Foreign Affairs, Walker said.
Some of the witnesses the commission previously planned to call have been dropped from the list as as result of the Federal Court ruling, she added.
Walker said the summonses were sent out at various times. Some had been outstanding since the summer, while others were issued in recent weeks following the receipt of new documents from the federal government.
The pre-hearing interviews are intended to help the commission find out more about the witnesses and determine where their stories fit into the overall narrative before they enter the formal witness box.
Alain Prefontaine, who represents all of the witnesses but Colvin, who has his own lawyer, said "it took us quite a while" to negotiate conditions for the pre-hearing interviews that will protect their interests.
For instance, no transcripts of these initial sessions will be published.
No witnesses from the Correctional Service of Canada have been called to appear at the hearings. However Prefontaine said the prison service, which sent members to Afghanistan, has handed documents over to the commission.
Transferring a prisoner between countries knowing they likely face torture is considered a war crime.
Allegations that federal safeguards for transferred prisoners were inadequate first arose publicly in the spring of 2007.
The federal government has appointed former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci to review exemptions applied to federal documents concerning what the government knew about the risk of torture faced by Afghan prisoners in 2006-07.
In the Commons question period Wednesday, opposition MPs, who have been clamouring to see the full documents, continued to call for a full public inquiry into the detainee affair.
"We need to know who in government knew what and when about torture in Afghan jails, and that should be the justice's mandate," said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.
The government continued to rebuff the calls, denying Canadian officials turned a blind eye to possible abuse of detainees.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said any suggestion "that Canadian military forces, diplomatic or other personnel have been involved in any of these kinds of activities are allegations made without any foundation whatsoever."
Under questioning from the Liberals, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said that a recently completed board of inquiry report on information about a specific transfer incident would be made public "in due course."