OTTAWA — Documents related to what the Harper government may have known about possible torture of prisoners in Afghan jails will not be released until after the May 2 federal election.
The judges overseeing the handling of documents say it wouldn’t be appropriate to release a report on their findings because Parliament has been dissolved.
They were working with an ad-hoc committee of MPs to whom they were supposed to report on April 15, but those members are now busy campaigning for re-election.
“There is no longer a committee ... to which the panel can provide its report and the results of its work, and no documents can be tabled in the house,” said a copy of a letter obtained Thursday by The Canadian Press.
The letter, signed by justices Frank Iacobucci and Claire L’Heureux-Dube, was sent to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe.
Jack Layton was excluded because the NDP pulled out of the committee.