General Changes His Story. Peter MacKay is Toast!

Gordon O'Connor was only demoted, but both he and Peter Mackay should be ousted.

One of the top generals who testified that there were no proven incidents of torture, has changed his story; and the evidence is mounting that MacKay was well aware of the torture allegations.
O'Connor also knew as early as 2006.

In October of this year, Norman Spector reported in the Globe: " ... "Le Devoir is reporting that Conservative Ministers Gordon O'Connor and Peter MacKay knew in 2006 that prisoners in Afghanistan were at risk of torture. Rick Hillier says in a interview with reporter Alec Castonguay that Amnesty International wrote to O'Connor in 2006 to warn him that this would be in contravention of the Geneva Convention: "He consulted me before replying to the letter. We spoke about it often, in every briefing," Hillier said, adding that the situation worsened in 2007, which led to a halt in transfers for several months. "It was only in the autumn of 2007 that we concluded that we would have to change the way we did things."

But when did Stephen Harper know? Considering the way he controls everything, it's hard to believe that he wasn't briefed on this, but obviously he's hoping that Mackay will take the fall. We'll see.

I was glad that Michael Ignatieff is pushing for a full public inquiry, because as he says: "the honour of our country, the honour of our armed forces is at stake.” And our troops agree.

Top general's detainee reversal hikes pressure for public inquiry
Canada's Chief of the Defence Staff General Walter Natynczyk at a news conference at the Steven Chase
Ottawa — The Globe and Mail
December 09, 2009

Canada’s top soldier has reversed himself on testimony he gave this week, with Chief of the Defence Staff Walter Natynczyk now admitting that a prisoner severely beaten in 2006 by Afghan interrogators had earlier been taken into custody by Canadian soldiers.

“I want to correct my statement,” General Natynczyk announced at a hastily arranged news conference, saying he’d been misinformed. “I intend to investigate why it took so long to get to the Chief of the Defence Staff.”

He couldn’t say whether the man taken into Canadian custody was also formally processed as a detainee of Canada. Gen Natynczyk said he’s ordering an investigation into this. The question is important because it would contradict Defence Minister Peter MacKay’s repeated insistence that not a single case of torture of Canadian detainees could be proven ....