A diplomat who contends that he warned Ottawa about alleged prisoner torture in Afghanistan will now be allowed to testify in front of a military commission.
Ottawa had initially moved to bar diplomat Richard Colvin from presenting evidence before the Military Police Complaints Commission because they said his information would not be relevant.
The commission is probing whether officials knew about the risk of torture in Afghan prisons.
The apparent about-face came as Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Friday that he never saw a pair of 2006 reports that suggested Afghan detainees might face torture once they were placed in that country's prisons.
Earlier this week, Colvin filed an affidavit saying that he had twice warned Ottawa -- in both May and June of 2006 -- of the torture risk.
Colvin's first report indicated that the torture allegations he had learned of regarding Afghan prisoners were "serious, imminent and alarming."
But months later, in the spring of 2007, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several cabinet ministers said they had not received credible reports about torture.
Asked further about the matter on Friday, Harper said he did not see reports "at the time."
"We've always been clear, I think. You know, there were allegations of Canadian troops involved in torture and we've been very clear that that's not the case," Harper told reporters gathered at a news conference in Toronto.
However, it isn't yet clear what Colvin will be allowed to say during the hearings. Currently, Ottawa has kept the content in his reports under wraps because of national security issues.
The prime minister added Friday that the government has since dealt with the "controversies" that were raised at that time.
"We've put a new transfer agreement -- Afghan prisoner agreement -- in place with the Afghan government, it's two-and-a-half years ago now, I think. So we have acted on these findings long since these reports," Harper said.
An ongoing inquiry has been looking at what military police knew -- or should have known -- about possible Afghan prison torture, has been put on hold for at least a half-year.
With files from The Canadian Press
