Redactions cover-up knowledge of torture: Dewar

OTTAWA – The government has abused redactions in the past to cover-up knowledge of torture. Any blacking-out of documents requested by the committee will undermine the committee’s ability to uncover the truth about the detainee torture issue, says New Democrat Foreign Affairs Critic Paul Dewar.

“We hear the government will be dumping redacted documents on the committee today but New Democrats want access to uncensored documents,” says Dewar.

Dewar pointed to the example of the Foreign Affairs 2006 report on human rights in Afghanistan, approved by Richard Colvin, where redactions were used to cover-up all passages related to torture.

The version released by government through an Access to Information request was so heavily redacted that it included absolutely no mention of torture and abuse in Afghan prisons. A version of the document later obtained through the federal court, however, indicated that just on the first page of the report officials warned that “extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common.”

“By redacting just that one sentence, the government was able to cover-up knowledge of extrajudicial killings and torture in Afghanistan,” says Dewar. “This is precisely why Canadians can’t trust any documents with redactions from this government”.