December 9, 2009
Ottawa, Ontario
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
In May of 2007, I issued a statement related to the events of 14 June 2006, regarding an incident that took place on the battlefield during combat operations in the Panjwaii district of Afghanistan.
Yesterday, I reiterated that information before the Standing Committee on National Defence. I referred to the actions taken by the Canadian Forces, who intervened to safeguard an individual that the Afghan National Police (ANP) had in custody, when they saw something was not right. I based my assessment on the operations reports, which I confirmed by speaking to a number of members of the chain of command that were part of Task Force Ryan in June of 2006.
This morning, at about 9 a.m., I was briefed by my staff, who have been researching the case to ensure the completeness of all the information that we have been using, especially surrounding the most recent report that we saw in the Globe and Mail on Monday. Today, they provided me with a statement by the section commander. When I read that report, I realized it was not totally consistent with the operations report and the information provided to me by the chain of command.
Canadian Forces personnel were involved in a joint operation and they were supporting the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. After reviewing this new information presented to me, I want to correct my statement made to the Standing Committee on National Defence yesterday, and indeed in May of 2007. This new information presented to me sheds important details on what occurred on the 14th of June. The individual who was beaten by the Afghan police was in fact in Canadian custody and, then, the Afghan National Police took control of him to facilitate his movement from the battlefield to Forward Operating Base Wilson.
I did not have this information in May of 2007, nor yesterday when I made my statement, but am responsible for the information provided by the Canadian Forces and am accountable for it today. I intend to investigate why it took so long for this information to get to the Chief of the Defence Staff, both my predecessor and me.
Nonetheless, I accept the Military Police report to be accurate.
I am proud that our soldiers acted courageously and ethically when they retrieved the individual from the Afghan National Police when it was apparent that he had been injured. That is the kind of decisive action soldiers make on a battlefield and I’m proud of our soldiers.
