Liberal senator slams Afghan casualty secrecy

Colin Kenny says the military’s policy of only releasing casualty lists once a year does soldiers a disservice.

While the U.K. and the U.S. release regular statistics on injuries their soldiers suffer in the Afghan war, the Conservative government long ago made the decision to only release casualty lists for Canadian troops once a year on Dec. 31. In a lengthy report in the Toronto Star today, the paper reveals that during some stretches of the war Canadian soldiers were being injured once every three days, but the Canadian public is never confronted with this reality. Liberal Senator Colin Kenny, former head of the Senate defence committee, said that the decision to keep the records secret obscures the sacrifices made by Canadian troops and hides the intensity of combat operations.