OTTAWA – Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday the Conservative government has never been complicit in prisoner torture.

"Not once have we ever turned a blind eye" to allegations of torture, MacKay told a parliamentary committee probing Canada's military mission in Afghanistan today.

Former defence minister Gordon O'Connor said he was never once told of prisoner abuse and accused opposition critics of the "lowest form of politics" for accusing the Conservative government of covering up torture.

Their denials come after an unexpected and explosive admission from Chief of Defence Staff Walter Natynczyk today, who said not only was it known Afghan police abused prisoners but that one in particular had been handed over by Canadian troops.

Natynczyk said new information arrived on his desk today after telling a parliamentary defence committee Tuesday that a prisoner beaten by Afghan police had not been in Canadian custody before he was handed over in May 2006.

"The moment I saw this report his morning I realized that the information I provided yesterday was incorrect and I am responsible for that," said the general, adding the report also noted that prisoner abuse by Afghan police was known.

This puts a lie to the government insistence that there were no credible reports that Canadian detainees were being abused once they were handed over to Afghan authorities.

"This just proves it's time for a public inquiry," Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said. While soldiers have behaved "impeccably" throughout, Ignatieff said, the government's handling of the detainee question proves the need for an open and independent investigation.

NDP defence critic MP Jack Harris said MacKay has no choice but to resign and that a public inquiry must be called immediately.

"What General Natynczyk had to say was a bombshell," said NDP MP Paul Dewar.

The Conservative government and military brass have been insisting since the detainee issue first became inflamed in 2007 that the prisoner was not a Canadian detainee, only that Canadian soldiers had saw him being abused and intervened for the man's safety.

"After reviewing this new information I want to correct my statement ... (in fact) the individual who was beaten by the Afghan police was in fact in Canadian custody and then the ANP took control of him," Natynczyk said.

He said the Afghan man taken into custody was one of three men in a white van and that he in particular had been acting suspiciously and was "in all probability the enemy, the Taliban."

Natynczyk said according to the section commander, the prisoner was photographed prior to being handed over to "to ensure that if the Afghan national police did assault him – as had happened in the past – that we would have a visual record of his condition."

Natynczyk said the prisoner was handed over "in good faith.

"I am proud that our soldiers acted courageously and ethically when they retrieved the individual from the Afghan national police when it was apparent that he had been injured," he told reporters.

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"Clearly he was abused."

The Chief of Defence Staff said he intends to investigate why it took so long for this information to get to his predecessor General Rick Hillier and himself.