Liberal MP Ralph Goodale discusses the deal to release secret detainee-realated documents in the House of Commons on Tuesday, June 15.
The Harper government has finalized a pact with opposition MPs to share previously secret records on Afghan prisoners - but the NDP has walked away from the table, insisting the deal shields the most crucial information from scrutiny.
The accord between the Conservatives, the Liberals and Bloc Québécois will see three MPs - one from each party - start scrutinizing uncensored files on Canada's record in Afghanistan as early as July. The first opportunity to make public any discoveries should be the third week in August, based on Commons rules that restrict when information can be released via Parliament during the summer holidays.
The NDP, now boycotting this inquiry, accused the Liberals of caving to the Tory government and said the deal as it stands will not allow the most secret deliberations over the handling of detainees to be laid before MPs. It still wants a public inquiry.
Tuesday's deal - which put flesh on the bones of a May 14 agreement in principle - caps seven months of fractious debate that included an unscheduled shuttering of Parliament and threats to trigger an election. Opposition MPs have demanded access to uncensored government records to probe repeated allegations that Canada knowingly handed over prisoners captured in Afghanistan to torture by local interrogators.
The Tories and Liberals refused to release a copy of the agreement Tuesday, saying it wasn't ready to be tabled in Parliament, but acknowledged the deal stipulates there are two categories of documents that will be withheld from MPs.
These disclosure loopholes include records that the Harper government declares to be matters of cabinet confidentiality - advice for cabinet, briefs, memos or records of cabinet discussions - as well as any legal advice provided by Justice Department lawyers.
"The things you need to know - What did the government know? When did they know it? What advice were they given? Did they follow it? - that's the stuff we will never see," NDP defence critic Jack Harris said.
"If this turns out that we don't get to the bottom of this, the reason will be this deal is inadequate."
He said this deal doesn't fit with the spirit of a historic ruling in April where Commons Speaker Peter Milliken declared that Parliament had an absolute authority to demand unredacted versions of the detainee documents.
The record exemptions protect more than just the Tories, who only inherited the war in Afghanistan when they took office in 2006.
"It's not just cabinet confidences for this government. It would apply to the two previous governments - Mr. [Paul]Martin and Mr. [Jean]Chrétien's government," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said.
A panel of arbiters, likely former judges, to be chosen jointly by the Tories, Liberals and Bloc will scrutinize any documents that MPs want to make public to ensure their release doesn't risk national security. Arbiters will also double-check any records that the government asserts should be exempted as cabinet confidences or legal advice.
"If the claims are deemed legitimate by experts we trust, then we're prepared to live with that," Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale said.
Former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion will be the party's main appointee to the review committee with his alternate being fellow Liberal MP Bryon Wilfert, Mr. Goodale said.
The NDP's Mr. Harris alleged the Liberals - a party currently divided over Michael Ignatieff's leadership - don't want to risk a showdown that could trigger a trip to the polls.
"The Liberals were looking for a deal as far as I could see. They're not prepared to take this to the point of confrontation that could result in an election," Mr. Harris said.
Michel Drapeau, a retired Forces colonel and a professor of military law, said he thinks it's important to keep secret memos for cabinet and deliberations by ministers in order to protect the power to give "unvarnished advice" to government.
But he said he thinks the panel of MPs should be allowed to see legal advice from government lawyers. The George W. Bush administration, he noted, waived the solicitor-client privilege to allow the release of controversial memos that advised what maltreatment was legally acceptable.
Keeping legal advice secret could be a major exemption given that the legality of what Canada was doing - and whether it could be in violation of the Geneva Conventions - is a crucial question in the detainee controversy. The Geneva Convention makes it a war crime to transfer detainees to those who would abuse them and obliges the detaining power to recover transferred prisoners if they are being maltreated.