Inside Politics

So, what did the Liberals know? Liveblogging Olexiuk and Ahmadshah at AFGH

by Kady O'Malley Posted: April 14, 2010 3:00 PM Last Updated: April 21, 2010 9:18 AM
RECAP: The first witness -- Malgarai Ahmadshah, a former interpreter who worked with the Canadian Forces in Kandahar from 2007 to 2008, turned out to be the headline generator of the day. Read the full CBC News story here. Olexiuk, on the other hand, had little to offer as far as direct accounts of unheeded warnings on torture, at least as far as specific former Liberal ministers and ministers' offices were concerned, although she confirmed that she had raised concerns over the prospect of handing detainees over to the NDS at a meeting in Ottawa in November 2005. 

As noted in Orders of the Day: 

The Afghanistan committee meets this afternoon to hear from one of the (very few) witnesses to be proposed thus far by a member on the government side: Eileen Olexiuk, formerly a senior policy advisor at Foreign Affairs, who told CBC News that she first raised the possibility that the inadequacy of the original transfer agreement "didn't do enough to protect detainees" back in 2005, but was roundly ignored by the then-Liberal government: "I don't think anyone really cared, quite frankly." Before Olexiuk takes the stand, however, the committee will hear from Malgarai Ahmadshah, advisor to the former Joint Task Force commander. 

Will I be there? Well, of course -- and after experiencing the broom closet-like cosiness of the Military Police Complaints Commission hearing room, I promise not to complain about being consigned to the West Block attic. Check back at 3:30 pm for full coverage! 

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Tags: afghanistan committee, amir attaran, blackberry jungle, committee liveblogging, well that was unexpected