The House of Commons voted in 2008 to create a special committee that would set out the scope of Canada's engagement in Afghanistan. Since then, the committee has not only utterly failed in its mandate -- it has actively helped facilitate a dishonest inquisition about detainees to almost ensure that no role for Canada in Afghanistan will be politically feasible. 

Paul Chapin, former director general for international security at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, takes on the issues in the Montreal Gazette:

In March 2008, the House of Commons approved a government motion that set parameters for Canada's future engagement in Afghanistan, including ending Canada's presence in Kandahar in July 2011. In addition, the motion proposed the establishment of a special committee to meet with ministers and officials, travel to the region, and "make frequent recommendations on the conduct and progress of our efforts in Afghanistan."

Instead, for many months now, the special committee on the Canadian mission in Afghanistan has been conducting hearings intended to uncover evidence that government officials and Canadian Forces personnel have been guilty of war crimes in Afghanistan. First came the denunciations, then the hunt for proof. An inquisition by any definition.

The hue and cry has become so loud and insistent, the public hears only from the accusers. Some of Canada's most distinguished citizens have been called war criminals, those who have dissented have been called liars or dupes -- and normally responsible politicians and media outlets, whether out of fear or expediency, have allowed outlandish claims to go unchallenged.

If we are to get at the truth about Afghan detainees, we need to restore some decency to our political discourse. Then we need to dispel myths that have become conventional wisdom through repetition.

Over five millions Afghans emigrated around the world to seek refuge from three decades of war. Many have returned home from neighboring countries such as Tajikistan, Pakistan and Iran. However many Afghan refugees have had to return back toIran or Pakistan due to lack of , security and peace in Afghanistan.

It seems that the Taliban in Afghanistan have been brought low to a point where they may be willing to negotiate. But when you look closely at their maximalist demands, you quickly realize that these are not starting points for a realistic solution. The Taliban are now hoping to achieve their civil-rights trampling end by simply asking for them. They have no relinquished one iota of their overall objectives for solidifying Afghanistan once more into a xenophobic, autocratic state guided by an most inhuman ideology that doesn't even pay lip service to basic human freedoms.

CASC co-founder Lauryn Oates explores this theme in the National Post. An excerpt:

As the world focused its attention on the talk of Afghanistan's future at the London Conference in January, no Western media picked up on a declaration, signed by these 200 organizations in Kabul on Jan. 25, that starts, without mincing words: "We, women's rights and Afghan civil society organizations participating in the above mentioned historic meeting, herewith declare the following:

1. Based on the persistent violation of the rights of women and men by the Taliban, whether when in power or after, object to any negotiation with the Taliban.

2. We desire peace and stability in Afghanistan, but we reaffirm that the Afghan Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are non-negotiable."

Canada has a stake in the realization of peace in Afghanistan. But tyranny, even in the absence of war, is not peace. So the Canadian Government needs to ensure it is listening carefully to Afghans, and to their democratically elected members of parliament and to their civil society leaders, and then advocating for the kind of peace that ordinary Afghans want. The Canadian public needs to likewise check itself when hearing of Taliban demands and be reminded that the Taliban are not some kind of popular rebellion who represent the aspirations of the average Afghan. Rather, they are a small band of oppressors long bolstered by the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, for sinister ends. Taliban ideology is rejected by the vast majority of Afghans, and should be viewed as the affront to modernity, human rights and civilization that it is.

The Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee is hosting panels this month in Halifax, Montreal, Winnipeg and Regina. We'll be updating the information on our events page, but in the meantime, here's a quick notice for our members and supporters:

CASC Event in Halifax on May 16

A Panel Responding to the Question: What Should Canada Do in Afghanistan Post-2011?

Date and Time
Sunday, May 16, 2010
7-10 pm

Location
Maritime Conservatory
6199 Chebucto Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Panelists

NAJIA HANEEFI is a founder of the Afghan Women’s Political Participation Committee and is the former head of Afghanistan’s largest women’s organization, the Afghan Women’s Education Centre (AWEC). Ms. Haneefi currently resides in Ottawa.

TERRY GLAVIN is an author of several books and a journalist whose writing from Afghanistan has appeared in newspapers and magazines as diverse as Democratiya, the National Post, the online daily The Tyee and Vancouver Review. He is a co-founder of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee.

LAURYN OATES, a human rights and gender equity activist with CASC and Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WA).

ANDREW BECKETT (Moderator). Resident, General Surgery Dalhousie University and Medical Officer, Canadian Armed Forces.

CASC Event in Montreal on May 17

A Panel Responding to the Question: What Should Canada Do in Afghanistan Post-2011?

Date and Time
May 17 from 7-9pm

Location
Atwater Library
1200 avenue Atwater
Westmount, QC

Panelists

ERSHAD AHMADI, Deputy Chief of the Afghanistan Mission to Canada

LAURYN OATES, a human rights and gender equity activist with CASC and Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan (CW4WA).

TERRY GLAVIN is an author of several books and a journalist whose writing from Afghanistan has appeared in newspapers and magazines as diverse as Democratiya, the National Post, the online daily The Tyee and Vancouver Review. He is a co-founder of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee.

STEPHEN SAIDEMAN is Canada Research Chair in International Security and Ethnic Conflict

CASC Event in Winnipeg on May 18

Date & Time: 
Tuesday, May 18th
Time: 7-9pm

Location:

Our panels including Afghan Ambassador Jawed Ludin in Edmonton and Calgary last week on Canada's role in Afghanistan post-2011 seem to have sparked just the right response from concerned Canadians. As Deborah Alexander writes in the Calgary Herald, it's long past time to get beyond the detainees distraction and back to the central issue of what we're doing in Afghanistan beyond 2011. An excerpt:

Parliament has a Canada Afghanistan Committee whose job it is to formulate the post-2011 policy. Canadians need to contact their MPs and insist that the dialogue begin. The July 2011 date for the drawdown of Canadian Forces is looming. If the Canadian government does not continue to support training and development, the last eight-years of war and sacrifice will have been in vain. Many believe the Taliban will again take over, women will be forced back under the burka, and the two million girls now in school will once again not be allowed schooling or medical services.

This Sunday, Rex Murphy will be hosting a one hour discussion on the Afghan detainees issue. Check it out on CBC Radio One, on Sirius satellite radio channel 137, and around the world on the Internet. :

This week's historic ruling by the Speaker of the House, while affirming Parliament's right to scrutinize the government, sent both the opposition and the government back to their benches to find a compromise between national security and Parliament's right to know.

What's your reaction? Will they find agreement? Will it end in an election?

See the full show information at http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/this-week.html