'... what the commission is doing is clearly outside of its jurisdiction,' Prime Minister says

The independent Military Police Complaints Commission has vowed to keep investigating whether Canada turned prisoners over to Afghan security forces knowing they would be tortured, despite the fact the Harper government has begun legal action to end the probe.

"We're surprised and disappointed by the government's decision to seek a court order to block the investigation and to prevent a public-interest hearing into this important case," chairman Peter Tinsley said. "It's especially surprising given the fact that the government did not challenge our jurisdiction a year ago when we first launched our investigation."

The Conservative government's attempt to shut down the probe, filed last Friday, came just weeks before the commission was to begin public hearings into whether the military knew detainees transferred to Afghan custody were likely to be tortured.

The hearings have the potential to cause grief for the government as it tries to shore up public support for the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan.

Yesterday, Tory ministers fended off accusations they were undermining an arms-length watchdog and defended their legal action as merely a bid to ensure the commission is operating within the law. But they failed to explain clearly why they did not act earlier.

"The advice I've received from officials is that what the commission is doing is clearly outside of its jurisdiction, and so we are going to court on that jurisdictional question," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters in Winnipeg.

The complaints commission set the stage for a confrontation with the government in March, when it announced plans to hold public-interest hearings after growing frustrated with Ottawa's refusal to release uncensored versions of hundreds of pages of documents.

Ordering the hearings gives the commission the authority to issue subpoenas for witnesses and documents.

The government's run-in with the commission is just the latest in a string of conflicts it has had with arms-length watchdogs in Ottawa, opposition MPs noted, from former Canadian nuclear safety commission chairwoman Linda Keen to former environment commissioner Johanne Gelinas.

"The more they try to hide, cover up, slam the door, the more demanding people will be for the accountability and openness Stephen Harper promised," said New Democratic Party defence critic Dawn Black.

Liberal defence critic Bryon Wilfert said the government's move breaches the March parliamentary motion extending the Afghan mission until 2011. The motion called for "franker and more frequent reporting on events in Afghanistan."

The next point of conflict between Ottawa and the commission could be the complaints watchdog's planned May 1 public hearings.

It could take the Federal Court of Canada until late fall to begin hearing the government's request to stop the inquiry and public hearings. A judgment likely will not be rendered until early 2009.

The commission said it is now undecided whether it will proceed with the hearings, acknowledging that Ottawa might file another legal motion asking a judge to prevent them from taking place.

The panel is investigating a complaint from Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association that alleges Ottawa and the Canadian Forces knew, or should have known, that torture and abuse were rife in Afghan prisons and that international law bars the handing over of prisoners under such circumstances.

The military stopped transferring detainees to Afghan security forces last November after Canadian diplomats reported credible evidence of torture. Detainee transfers resumed in February.

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