Remember the infamous US contractor Blackwater (now Xe)? Think they were bad? Canada has been hiring mercenaries in Afghanistan that even the Americans won’t touch.

Canada spent more than $41 million on hired guns in Afghanistan over four years, much of it going to security companies slammed by the U.S. Senate for having warlords on the payroll….

The records [tabled in the House of Commons by the NDP] show Foreign Affairs paid nearly $8 million to ArmorGroup Securities Ltd., recently cited in a U.S. Senate investigation as relying on Afghan warlords who in 2007 were engaged in “murder, kidnapping, bribery and anti-Coalition activities.”

And there’s lots more.

Unlike the Americans who were forced to develop accountability rules after excesses by its gun-happy contractors, Canada has no such guidelines in place—and no plans to develop any.

Meanwhile the government, with evident Liberal and BQ connivance, have run out the clock on the Afghan detainee issue. So much for Speaker Peter Milliken’s historic ruling on parliamentary privilege last April. A week is a long time in politics: nine months is an eternity.

Politicians lie; Afghan civilians die. And with former human rights advocate Michael Ignatieff agreeing to an extension of the Canadian mission, we can expect a lot more of both.