Canadian troops detain an Afghan man during Operation Medusa in the Panjwaii district of Kandahar province on Sept. 5, 2006.
February, 2007: The Canadian Military Police Complaints Commission (MPCC) launches a probe into whether military police knew - or should have known - they were handing Afghan detainees over to known torturers.
April, 2007: The Globe reveals that the Canadian embassy in Kabul warned the government in a 2006 report about allegations of torture. Government officials initially denied the report existed. When it was released, several damning portions were blacked out but obtained independently by The Globe.
July, 2007: The Globe reports that the office of General Rick Hillier, then Canada's top soldier, halted the release of any documents relating to detainees under the federal Access to Information Act, claiming that disclosure of any such information could endanger Canadian troops.
July, 2007: Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association apply for an order to force the federal government to release as many as 140 pages of documents related to the handling of prisoners. The government invokes a section of the Canada Evidence Act to block the release.
January, 2008: The Globe reports that a specially created group of military officers codenamed Tiger Team scrutinized virtually every public access-to-information request dealing with the Afghan mission.
March, 2008: Peter Tinsley, the chairman of the MPCC, orders public hearings into the detainee issue, saying his year-long investigation has encountered roadblocks and he has been unable to obtain relevant documents and information from government authorities.
April, 2008: Federal lawyers attempt to shut down Mr. Tinsley's hearings. Mr. Tinsley says he will proceed.
October, 2008: Justice Department lawyers file an application seeking a Federal Court order prohibiting the MPCC from investigating the allegations of abuse of detainees.
April, 2009: The federal court denies the government's application for an indefinite stay of the MPCC hearing.
May, 2009: The MPCC begins public hearings about the torture of detainees.
October, 2009: The government fails to produce two pages of logs requested by the MPCC showing that Canadian military police investigated whether Afghan prisoners risked torture. Government lawyers say the declassification process would take too long.
October, 2009: The government tries to block Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin from testifying at the inquiry. Mr. Colvin ships his affidavit to the MPCC in a sealed envelope. It says that, almost from the start of the 2006 push into southern Afghanistan, Canada's senior military and government officials were warned of "serious, imminent and alarming" problems with handing over captured prisoners to that country's jails.
November, 2009: In explosive testimony to a special House of Commons committee on Afghanistan, Mr. Colvin says the torture of prisoners is "standard operating procedure."
November, 2009: The Commons committee reports to the House what it considered to be a breach of its privileges in relation to its requests for documents from the government.
December, 2009: It is revealed that the government has blacked out large sections of relevant files handed over to the MPCC inquiry. The Commons committee's efforts to obtain information, including the unredacted reports of Mr. Colvin, are similarly stymied.
December, 2009: Opposition parties force through an extremely rare Commons motion ordering the Harper government to release confidential records on detainees captured in Afghanistan.
March 5, 2010 - Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announces the government appointment of former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci to undertake an independent review of the documents at issue to determine what can be released.
March 18, 2010: Opposition members raise questions of privilege related to the December order insisting that the documents be produced.
March and April, 2010: The government tables a large volume of heavily redacted documents.
April 27, 2010: House Speaker Peter Milliken rules that the government can be considered in contempt of Parliament for refusing to let MPs see secret records on Afghan detainees