Stephen Harper Says to Hell With the Troops, I'm Going to the Hague

Further proof that Stephen Harper is not taking this seriously, and would prefer that our soldiers face criminal charges at the Hague, was in the pure nonsense he spouted today.

In pure George Bush fashion he is a accusing the Opposition of attacking our men and women in uniform, when not one of them did any such thing.

In fact they want a full inquiry, because if we don't, by international law, all those involved will face war crime charges at the Hague, including any soldiers who handed over detainees.

Stephen Harper deserted the troops when the first email arrived, and has been saving his own behind ever since.

Since he and his party care nothing for us or our soldiers, it's time to bring them home. They are now in more danger than ever because the Afghan people know what has been going on, and we can no longer claim to be there for humanitarian reasons. We have lost our moral authority, so the war is officially over for us.

If the Reformers had nothing to hide they would DEMAND an inquiry. Instead they're trying a cover up and smear campaign. Our troops deserve a leader who stands with them. Stephen Harper proved today that he is not a leader. He is a spineless coward.

Harper takes shot at opposition over torture allegations
NDP plans to hold a vote in House on the need for an inquiry
Joanna Smith Ottawa Bureau
November 29, 2009

PORT OF SPAIN–Prime Minister Stephen Harper took a partisan shot at his opposition critics while touring the HMCS Quebec in Trinidad-Tobago Sunday.

The Canadian ship and navy officers are helping with security for the Commonwealth summit. Harper, in brief comments to the Canadians, was addressing allegations that Canadian civilian and military leaders ignored warnings of a risk of torture in Afghan prisons.

"Let me just say this: living as we do, in a time when some in the political arena do not hesitate before throwing the most serious of allegations at our men and women in uniform, based on the most flimsy of evidence, remember that Canadians from coast to coast to coast are proud of you and stand behind you, and I am proud of you, and I stand beside you." (If he was standing beside them he would allow an inquiry so they don't have to face a war crimes tribunal)

Liberals, the Bloc Québécois and the New Democrats are calling for an inquiry into allegations by Richard Colvin, a former Afghanistan-based diplomat and senior intelligence officer at Canada's embassy in Washington, that his superiors in Canada ignored his repeated warnings from May 2006 to spring 2007 that the detainees handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan authorities faced a substantial risk of torture at the hands of Afghans, not Canadians.

The NDP announced Sunday it will use its "opposition day" in the Commons on Tuesday to hold a vote on the need for an inquiry.

The Canadian military denies any knowledge of "credible" warnings of torture before May 2007, while top civilian bureaucrat David Mulroney admitted that there many kinds of warnings, but a lack of "hard facts" to act on prior to May 2007 when a new prisoner transfer deal was inked.

In recent days, Harper and his ministers have framed the controversy as an attack on the military by the opposition, as today's comments from the Prime Minister appeared to indicate.

Opposition politicians say that they are in fact standing up for Canadian soldiers in the face of incompetent or unclear handling of torture allegations by the Conservative government