Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Tuesday that Canadian Forces will continue to transfer detainees to Afghan authorities, despite allegations of abuse.
Day, speaking in Quebec City, said Canada will take action by further urging the Afghan government to ensure that human rights are respected with regards to prisoners.
"It's important to insist that the Afghan government respects all people, even prisoners,'' he said at a news conference.
Day noted that human rights in Afghanistan, especially for prisoners, is "so to speak, a new concept'' that must become common practice.
"It's not going as quickly as we would like, but we see some progress.''
Day said also there's no way that Canada will bring Taliban prisoners held by the Afghans into this country.
"We want the Taliban to stay in Afghanistan, that their human rights are respected, but we don't want them to come here,'' he said.
"We don't support Mr. Dion's idea of bringing Afghan prisoners here.''
Liberal Leader Stephan Dion first suggested Canada should transport prisoners detained in Afghanistan back to Canada but then rejected the idea.
The Tories remain on the defensive after The Globe and Mail reported Monday that Afghan prisoners, after being handed over to local authorities, are routinely beaten, whipped, starved, frozen, choked and interrogated by electric shock in Kandahar jails.
The newspaper report chronicled claims of abuse by Afghan authorities after more than 30 face-to-face interviews with men recently captured in Kandahar province.
On Tuesday, the Tories faced mounting pressure to revisit their prisoner handover agreement with Afghanistan.
During question period, Deputy Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff demanded that the government replace Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor.
"We need to ensure that our military upholds the best traditions they've always upheld of complying with the Geneva Convention. There's no conceivable reason to keep this mission under the control of a minister who doesn't seem to know which way is up," Ignatieff said.
"Will the prime minister stop this sickening charade and fire that minister of defence?" he asked.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded by saying that Canadian officials are in constant communication with Afghan agencies, including the human rights commission, to ensure the arrangements are being respected.
"If they are not being respected, we will obviously act," he said. "But I should say I think what's disgraceful is to simply accept the allegations of some Taliban suspects at face value."
After a detainee is questioned at Kandahar Air Field, Canadian Forces usually hand over prisoners to the National Directorate of Security (NDS) -- Afghanistan's feared intelligence police.
But under the handover agreement, signed by Gen. Rick Hillier, chief of defence staff for the Canadian Armed Forces, in 2005, Canada has no jurisdiction to follow up on the condition of detainees once the handover is made.
Critics say that the agreement should be renegotiated to ensure proper monitoring measures.
Canada did negotiate a separate agreement with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) to monitor the condition of detainees but the watchdog admits they can't do much.
The regional head of investigations for the AIHRC told The Globe in a recent interview that his staff is being blocked from visiting detainees in NDS' detention cells in Kandahar.
"We have an agreement with the Canadians, but we can't monitor these people," said Amir Mohammed Ansari, chief investigator for AIHRC in Kandahar. "Legally, we have permission to visit prisoners inside the NDS prison. But they don't allow it."
The controversy continues to build as MPs prepare to vote on a Liberal motion Tuesday to pull out troops from Afghanistan by 2009. The motion is not likely to pass as the NDP is expected to team up with the Tories to defeat it.
Earlier Tuesday, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada said he was not surprised by allegations of detainee abuse in his country but he said that shouldn't overshadow the important mission being accomplished.
"I expected some of these allegations to appear in the media because there already were indications that maybe something was happening so it wasn't totally surprising for me," Omar Samad told CTV's Canada AM.
"I believe that the overall mission in Afghanistan is strategically so important that it shouldn't be overshadowed by something maybe not going right."
Samad said the situation needs to be addressed but that it should be considered within the "larger picture."
