Ottawa

‘If there are specific problems’

The Prime Minister responds to last night’s CBC report.

“These reports continue to be things that have been said before, and our position is the same: Whenever there are specific allegations of abuse under the agreement, action is taken to investigate those,” Harper told reporters at an event with Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty in Mississauga. “There is a rigorous arrangement of monitoring and oversight in the new prisoner agreement, and it has continued to work effectively. As I say, if there are specific problems, they are investigated and appropriate action has been taken. That has been the case for over three years.”

For the record, a pair of Mr. Harper’s ministers assured the House late last year that no substantiated allegations of abuse existed. That 2006 field report seems to confirm one such case and suggest that similar abuse had happened in the past. A Board of Inquiry investigation into the events described in that field report was completed last month, but does not yet appear to have been released publicly.

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