The Department of National Defence says it is suppressing information and military documents to protect the safety of Canada's soldiers.
A statement released by the office of deputy minister of National Defence, Ward Elcock, says officials are not acting in bad faith.
"This is being done for one reason and one reason alone: to ensure there is no inadvertent release of information that could assist the enemy and put Canadian, allied or Afghan lives at greater risk," the statement says, according to The Globe and Mail.
The decision to withhold information and documents similar to those already made public comes amid criticism and assertions that the department is suppressing documents about Afghan detainees.
Last week, The Globe reported that the office of General Rick Hillier, Canada's top soldier, has been reviewing all access-to-information requests related to detainees since last March, when allegations of prisoner mistreatment first came to light. The result has been an almost blanket ban on the release of new information.
The department's statement says National Defence is following all access-to-information protocols, and that the review process of the Strategic Joint Staff -- a newly created group that advises Hillier and carries out his role in the access-to-information process -- ensures "consistency in the release of information" but does not change the standard access-to-information processes.
National Defence's director of access to information, Julie Jansen, has "exempted in its entirety" the disclosure of detainee transfer logs, medical records, witness statements and other processing forms, The Globe reports.
The department said the information could not be disclosed for national security reasons.
Allegations of Afghan detainees being abused while in Canadian custody first became known last year following information requests by the newspaper and Ottawa University Prof. Amir Attaran.
Attaran said the decision to withhold documents is part of a culture of secrecy within the Defence Department.
"Let's be blunt, they are acting in bad faith," he told The Globe. "There's no two ways about it. Information, documents that were readily disclosed last year, are now taboo and off limits. How is that in any way construable as good faith?"
Attaran says access laws haven't changed, only how National Defence is applying it.
