Retired Supreme Court justice to act as the government’s gatekeeper
The federal government is tapping retired Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci to decide just how much of the government’s documents on Afghan detainees should be released to opposition MPs. The government has so far resisted the opposition’s repeated demands to release the documents that detail what the government knew (and when it knew it) about the alleged torture of Afghan suspects handed over to local authorities, releasing only heavily-censored versions of the documents. Iacobucci’s appointment comes after the House of Commons foreign affairs committee heard last fall from Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin, who said he’d issued repeated warnings to government officials that Afghan prisoners captured by Canadian troops were being abused by local authorities.