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“In her letters to Members who have requested an examination or otherwise expressed concern about a possible contravention of the Act, the Commissioner indicates whether or not she will launch an examination and provides an explanation, but does not necessarily detail all the steps that she has taken,” said Margot Booth, a spokesperson for the commissioner.

Sajjan recently told a group of security experts in New Delhi that he was the “architect” of Operation Medusa, a 2006 offensive that resulted in the death or capture of between 500 and 1,500 Taliban fighters. On Saturday, Sajjan formally apologized for exaggerating his involvement in Operation Medusa. In a statement posted on Facebook he said: “I made a mistake ‎in describing my role. I wish to retract that description and apologize for it. I am truly sorry.”

“We’ve now had three different versions of what he’s said he was doing there. The one which he’s now, I guess, taken back which says he was mistaken. The version from general Fraser which says he was an intelligence officer. And the version he appears to have given to the conflict of interest commissioner that says he was merely working on capacity-building with the Afghan police,” NDP defence critic Randall Garrison told the Post.

Garrison was in Kandahar shortly before Sajjan arrived, working as a human-rights investigator for Amnesty International. Amnesty repeatedly raised concerns about Canadian soldiers taking prisoners, some of whom human rights groups have said were farmers or other civilians, and delivering them to be tortured.