Afghan detainee report in MacKay's hands

The interim reporton allegations thatmembers of the military police failed toinvestigateCanadian Forces in Afghanistan over the transfer of detainees has been passed on to Defence Minister Peter MacKay and Chief of Defence Staff Walt Natynczyk.

The Military Police Complaints Commission is handlingthe complaint from Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association thatsenior officials in the military police failed to investigatethe transfer of detainees to Afghan authorities in the face of a known risk of torture.

The interim report contains findings and recommendationsand won't be made public. It was sent Wednesday to MacKay, Natynczyk, the office of the judge advocate general and the Canadian Forces provost marshal.

The commission, an independent body that provides civilian oversight for the military police, now waits for national defence leadership to review the interim report and to respond with "any action that has been or will be taken with respect to the complaint," said a news release Thursday.

Once that notice of action is given back, the complaints commission will write its final report, which will be made public.

This case has been dragging on for yearsand has been fraught with legal battles.

Amnesty International and the BC Civil Liberties Association first filed complaints to the commission in 2007,prompting a series of public hearings on the role of Canada's military police officers in the transfers of prisoners captured by Canadian Forces toAfghan authorities.

The groupsallege that senior members of the Canadian Forces military police unit in Canada and Afghanistan failed to investigatepotential violations of international, domestic, and military law arising from theorders for Canadian Forces to transfer detainees toAfghan police.

Hearings triggered a legal challenge

Amnesty International and theBC civil liberties associationarguedthere was a failure to adequately investigate theorders, andto considerthe risk of torture faced bydetainees transferred by Canada.

They said senior officials had sufficient information to suspect detainees were at risk of being tortured yet they did not investigate the transfers.

The hearings triggered a legal challenge by the federal government and Federal Court ruled in favour of the commission saying it did have jurisdictionto look intoallegations of failure to investigate the torture allegations and the hearings proceeded.

There were also arguments over the production of documents that for a time ground proceedings to a halt. Opposition parties tried to force the Conservatives in 2009 to produce documents and the battle ended up being a subjet of a breach of privilege ruling by the House of Commons Speaker at the time, Peter Milliken in April 2010.He ordered the parties to work together to review the documents, a process that was also fraught with controversy.

Final hearings at the commission wrapped up in February.