National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 4

nationalpost.com NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009 afraid of, other than the Stephen Harper, Prime Minister POLITICS MP Keddy apologizes for 'unacceptable' comments 'NO-GOOD BASTARDS' sit Afghanistan visit when he was Foreign JIM FARRELL CANWEST NEWS SERVICE FILES Minister. On his left is Richard Colvin, now a diplomat in Washington. BY SOLDIERS TORTURE IE By Allison Cross Conservative Gerald Keddy apologized yesterday for disparaging comments he made about out-of-work Nova Scotians in a Halifax newspaper, amid demands that he resign from his post as parliamentary secretary. "It's this type of attitude that cannot be accepted by anybody in government," said New Democratic Party MP Peter Staffer. "An apology is important but most importantly he needs to understand these kinds of remarks are unacceptable." In an interview published yesterday in the Chronicle-Herald, Mr.

Keddy, a Nova Scotia MP, called unemployed citizens "no-good bastards" who sit on the sidewalk instead of getting work. Mr. Keddy had been asked by a reporter whether he was employing migrant workers on the Christmas tree farm he runs with his family. He told the paper he had not hired migrants but wouldn't criticize others for hiring them because "Nova Scotians won't do it" "I would like to offer a sincere apology for remarks I made regarding the unemployed in Halifax," said Mr. Keddy said in a written statement "In no way did I mean to offend those who have lost their job due to the global recession, nor did I mean to suggest that anyone who is unemployed is not actively looking for employment" Mr.

Keddy reiterated his apology during question period in the House of Commons. Mr. Keddy, who is married to Judy Streatch, the former Nova Scotia minister of community services, should know better, said Mr. Staffer, a Nova Scotia MP. "There has to be severe reprimand for this particular issue.

I encourage the Prime Minister to suspend his parliamentary privileges and remove him from that post," he said. Rick Clark, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, also called for Mr. Keddy's resignation. Approximately 52,000 residents of the Halifax region live below the poverty level, said Mayor Peter J. Kelly, adding that he found Mr.

Keddy's comments inappropriate. "He represents part of the Halifax Regional Municipality and we expect him to stand up for us, not tear us down," the Mayor said. Mr. Kelly said he appreciated Mr. Keddy's apology and extended an invitation to the MP to come to Halifax and work together on the issue.

Canwest News Service n-feX Peter MacKay, centre, on a 2006 AFGHAN DETAINEES By David Akin OTTAWA Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended the actions of Canadian soldiers and diplomats in Afghanistan yesterday and said his government would provide "all legally available information" to a House of Commons committee studying allegations that suspected insurgents captured by Canadians were tortured after being turned over to Afghan authorities. Mr. Harper, making his first comments on the issue since diplomat Richard Colvin made his explosive allegations last week, also resisted opposition demands for a public inquiry. "In every single instance, Canadian diplomats and Canadian soldiers, whenever they are aware of abuse, take the action they are required to take under international law because that is how this country acts and we are proud of those people," Mr. Harper said in the House of Commons.

The issue will dominate Parliament Hill again today when General Rick Hillier, the former chief of defence staff and a one-time commander of PM IN STANDS ing to block Mr. Mulroney's testimony. "If the opposition parties are at all serious about getting to the truth, they will actually hear from those who want to testify before the parliamentary committee. There are a number. Let them be heard.

What is the opposition afraid of, other than the truth?" Mr. Harper said. Late yesterday, it appeared a compromise was in the works that would allow Mr. Mulroney to give his testimony tomorrow and for committee to look at the documentary record to which Mr. Colvin referred.

"We need to see Cabinet committee minutes. We need to see the information that was provided to the Prime Minister, the minister of defence, the minister of external affairs," said Liberal MP Bob Rae, who is on the Commons Afghanistan committee. "We need to see Mr. Colvin's memos in full plus the responses to those memos and we need to see the human rights reports that were presented to the minister of foreign affairs." House of Commons committees have significant legal powers and can, like a judge, subpoena witnesses and documents. Mr.

Harper was also criticized for taking so long to respond to Mr. Colvin's testimony. Mr. Harper was absent from the three daily Question Period sessions since then and has not taken any questions from reporters or politicians since last Wednesday. On Monday, rather than face opposition questions in the House of Commons, he scheduled a publicity photo with the Canadian men's lacrosse team.

"The torture issue is turning into a complete fiasco for the Conservatives," NDP Leader Jack Layton said in the House of Commons. "While the Prime Minister is busy holding photo opportunities that could easily have been scheduled at other times, he is abandoning really any pretence of caring about this issue or that Canada may have been in the past and may still be violating Geneva Convention rules." Canwest News Service NATO forces in Afghanistan, testifies, along with another top general, at the House of Commons special committee on the mission in Afghanistan. Mr. Colvin, in testimony under oath before that committee last week, said Canadian Forces in 2006 and early 2007 turned over hundreds of detainees to Afghan authorities, and they were almost certainly tortured. Some of those captured, he suggested, were merely farmers in the wrong The torture issue complete fiasco for place at the wrong time.

Those allegations, if true, raise the possibility that Canada may have broken some international agreements on the treatment of prisoners. In the spring of 2007, the Harper government revised an agreement with Afghan authorities to address the matter and, since then, has suspended the transfer of detainees three times on fears Afghan authorities were mistreating prisoners or otherwise not living up to their A agreements on prisoner treatment. "The fact of the matter is that whenever Canadian diplomats or Canadian military officials have concrete evidence, have substantial evidence of any kind of abuse they take appropriate action. That is what they have done in these cases," Mr. Harper said in the House of Commons.

Mr. Colvin, who is now a Canadian diplomat in Washington but was on the ground in Kandahar in 2006, is turning into a the Conservatives also testified last week that he tried to warn his superiors about the situation with little effect. One of those superiors was David Mulroney, who was at the time a deputy minister in charge of the Afghanistan Mission. Mr. Mulroney is now Ambassador to China and flew Monday from Beijing to Ottawa with an offer to provide the Commons committee with his own testimony, widely expected to knock holes in Mr.

Colvin's allegations. Opposition MPs, though, are set to block Mr. Mulroney's testimony saying it will be of little value without documents relating to the transfer of detainees that Mr. Colvin referred to in his testimony. Mr.

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