Peter Gordon MacKay is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was a Member of Parliament from 1997 to 2015 and has served as Minister of Justice and Attorney General (2013–2015), Minister of National Defence (2007–2013), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (2006–2007) in the Cabinet of Canada under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. MacKay was the final leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, and he agreed to merge the party with Stephen Harper's Canadian Alliance in 2003, forming the Conservative Party of Canada and making MacKay one of the co-founders of the current conservative wing of Canadian politics.
Stephen Joseph Harper is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, serving as the party's first leader from 2004 to 2015.
John Moody Roberts, was a Canadian politician. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for 13 years interspersed between 1968 and 1984. He was a member of cabinet in the government of Pierre Trudeau.
Peter Andrew Stewart Milliken is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 until his retirement in 2011 and served as Speaker of the House for 10 years beginning in 2001. Milliken represented the Ontario riding of Kingston and the Islands as a member of the Liberal Party. On October 12, 2009, he became the longest serving Speaker of the House of Commons in Canadian history. His Speakership was notable for the number of tie-breaking votes he was required to make as well as for making several historic rulings. Milliken also has the unique distinction of being the first Speaker to preside over four Parliaments. His legacy includes his landmark rulings on Parliament's right to information, which are key elements of parliamentary precedent both in Canada and throughout the Commonwealth.
Robert S. Moore is a Canadian lawyer, politician, and former Minister of State (ACOA) and Regional Minister for New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Julia Verlyn LaMarsh was a Canadian politician, lawyer, author and broadcaster. In 1963, she was only the second woman ever to serve as a federal Cabinet minister. Under Prime Minister Lester Pearson's minority governments of the middle and late 1960s, she helped push through the legislation that created the Canada Pension Plan and Medicare. As Secretary of State, she was in charge of Canada's Centennial celebrations in 1967. After leaving politics in 1968, she wrote three books, and had her own radio show on CBC Radio. She was stricken with pancreatic cancer in 1979 and was given the Order of Canada at her hospital bed. She died a few days short of the 20th anniversary of her first political election victory, in 1980.
Robert William "Bob" Runciman is a Canadian politician and former provincial Leader of the Opposition in the Ontario Legislature. First elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1981, he held the seat continuously for Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario for the next 29 years. On January 29, 2010, he was appointed to the Senate of Canada as a Conservative, where he served until August 10, 2017.
Gordon James O'Connor, is a retired brigadier-general, businessman, and lobbyist, who served as Conservative Member of Parliament from 2004 to 2015.
Helena C. Guergis, is a Canadian politician of Assyrian descent. She represented the Ontario riding of Simcoe—Grey in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2011, and was appointed Minister of State on October 30, 2008, following the October 14, 2008 Canadian federal election. Soon after starting her parliamentary career, she became involved in several controversial situations, and these increased with time in both number and severity.
Michael David Chong is a Canadian politician who has represented the Ontario riding of Wellington—Halton Hills in the House of Commons since 2004. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of Sport, as well as the President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada from February 6, 2006 to November 27, 2006. On September 8, 2020, Chong was appointed the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Vincent George Kerrio was a businessperson and politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Liberal from 1975 to 1990, and was a cabinet minister in the government of David Peterson. He was the first Italian-Canadian to serve as a cabinet minister in Ontario.
Lawrence Cannon, is a Canadian politician from Quebec and Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former Quebec lieutenant. In early 2006, he was made the Minister of Transport. On October 30, 2008, he relinquished oversight of Transport and was sworn in as Minister of Foreign Affairs. He was defeated in the 2011 federal election by the NDP's Mathieu Ravignat. He was appointed as Canadian Ambassador to France in May 2012, and he served in that position until September 2017.
Gary Orazio Vincenzo Pillitteri was a member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 to 2004. Born in Racalmuto, Italy, Pillitteri is a farmer and businessman. Currently, he is the founder and president of Pillitteri Estates Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
John Twining Clement was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as a Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament from 1971 to 1975 and was in the cabinet of premier Bill Davis.
The premiership of Stephen Harper began on February 6, 2006, when the first Cabinet headed by Stephen Harper was sworn in by Governor General Michaelle Jean. Harper was invited to form the 28th Canadian Ministry, becoming Prime Minister of Canada following the 2006 election, where Harper's Conservative Party won a plurality of seats in the House of Commons of Canada, defeating the Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin's government. In the 2011 federal election, Harper won his first and only majority government.
The Canadian Afghan detainee issue concerns Government of Canada or the Canadian Forces (CF) knowledge of abusive treatment of detainees in Afghanistan. The abuse occurred after Afghans were detained by Canadian Forces, and subsequently transferred to the Afghan National Army (ANA) or the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) during the War in Afghanistan. The issue has sparked heated debate since Article 12 of the Third Geneva Convention states that "the Detaining Power [Canada] is responsible for the treatment given [to prisoners of war]". If the allegations of torture are true it would mean Canada is guilty of war crimes.
Richard Colvin is a Canadian foreign service officer who gained public attention as a witness in the Canadian Afghan detainee issue. He appeared before the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan in late 2009, where he testified that Afghan detainees turned over to Afghanistan prisons by Canadian soldiers were tortured. His testimony led to intense scrutiny of the Harper government's detainee policies in Kandahar, including through further witnesses at the House of Commons Afghanistan committee. On January 1, 2010, Prime Minister Harper prorogued Parliament, preventing further testimony on the Afghan detainee issue. This then triggered anti-prorogation protests.
On 23 January 2010 there were numerous protests opposing the prorogation of the 40th Canadian Parliament. The prorogation had occurred a month earlier on 30 December 2009 on the constitutional advice of Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper and was officially carried out by Governor General Michaëlle Jean. Protests were held in over 60 cities and towns in Canada, and internationally in New York City, San Francisco, Dallas, London, Oman, Brussels, Amsterdam, The Hague and Costa Rica. The protests and rallies attracted approximately 21,000 participants, including many who had joined a group on Facebook, known as the "Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament" (CAPP). At the 23 January rallies in Ottawa and Toronto, Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff, New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and Member of Parliament Bob Rae spoke against the prorogation, while at the rally in Montreal, Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe spoke alongside future NDP leader, Thomas Mulcair, and Liberal MP Marc Garneau. Future Liberal Leader and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was also in attendance at the Montreal Rally.
The following is a timeline of events in the Canadian Afghan detainee issue. This includes many specific dates and statements.
Tony Baldinelli is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent the riding of Niagara Falls in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2019 Canadian federal election as a Conservative. He held the seat for the Tories after its long-serving member of Parliament, former cabinet minister Rob Nicholson, retired. Prior to being elected, he had worked at Niagara Parks for 18 years. In September 2020, Conservative leader Erin O'Toole named Baldinelli his special adviser on Tourism Recovery.
