The former Canadian soldier who sounded the alarm about videos of alleged torture by members of the Iraqi security forces trained by Canadian forces made a direct appeal to MP Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Canadian Conservative Party which forms the official opposition in the House of Commons.

Retired Sergeant Mike MacInnis called in a written letter for the Conservative Party to push for a follow-up investigation into how the military institution handled his warnings.

He said his efforts to attract the attention of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Department of National Defence bore no fruit.

''The matter needs to be properly investigated to preserve the values we cherish as Canadians,'' MacInnis wrote in the letter received by Poilievre's office in mid-December, as reported by ''CBC'' (the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s English service).

''Failure to intervene and address such serious crimes not only undermines the credibility of our military and country, at home and abroad, but also endangers the safety and well-being of our personnel,'' said MacInnis.

MacInnis was the leader of a team from the Canadian Armed Forces on a mission to train Iraqi security forces near Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq, in 2018. He said that some Iraqi recruits showed him and other Canadian trainers videos on their mobile phones depicting cases of torture, rape, and summary executions of people suspected of belonging to the armed ''Islamic State'' (''ISIS'') organization and their supporters.

Canada was obliged under international law to report the soldiers' concerns on the ground. A CBC investigation last month revealed that the Iraqi government was not informed about the videos of alleged torture until 2021, after the issue became public.

''The Canadian government failed to disclose this information to the Iraqi government for three years, and only did so after it received media attention and, importantly, at the request of the Iraqi ambassador,'' MacInnis wrote in his letter dated December 11.

''Iraq has laws against murder and rape and has a professional law enforcement agency capable of conducting criminal investigations,'' MacInnis added.

''A blatant disregard for justice''

MacInnis added that the Canadian government's ''failure to disclose (the information) in a timely manner shows an insensitive disregard for justice, deprives the host state of the opportunity to follow due process, and deprives the international community of awareness.''

''CBC'' sent two requests for comment to the Conservative Party leader's office over several days, but had not received any reply at the time of publishing its report today.

The Conservative Party's national defence spokesperson, MP James Bezan, expressed concern about this issue in 2021 in an intervention in the House of Commons before MacInnis spoke about it publicly last fall.

In an exclusive interview with ''CBC'' last November, MacInnis said Canadian soldiers trained trainees suspected of committing war crimes and were ordered to provide them with weapons and personal protective equipment.

MacInnis also added that there were some auxiliary police officers among the trainees, and that the Canadians were concerned when they learned that they had ''people who even told us they come from Shia militias.''

The Shia militias played a crucial role in supporting the Iraqi army's campaign to free the country from ISIS extremists between 2014 and 2017.

However, these armed groups were also seen as a source of political tension with Sunni Arabs and Kurds, as well as representing a major human rights problem.

It is noted that in the year before Canadian soldiers began the training mission, the human rights organization ''Human Rights Watch'' accused the Iraqi 16th Division, trained by American forces, of extrajudicial killings and other violations during the battle to retake Mosul from ''ISIS.''

The Canadian branch of Amnesty International publicly called for a follow-up investigation into the Canadian training mission.

The Canadian military police conducted an investigation into the allegations made by MacInnis and other Canadian soldiers. The Canadian Armed Forces said in a statement that investigators ''found no evidence of neglect of duty, misconduct, or any other abuse by members of the Canadian Armed Forces.''

For his part, Minister of National Defence Bill Blair rejected calls for an investigation, saying that senior military leaders briefed him on the matter and that he was convinced Canada had fulfilled its international obligations.

The left-leaning New Democratic Party had called for an investigation in 2021.

When MacInnis spoke publicly last November, the New Democratic Party's national defence spokesperson, MP Lindsay Mathyssen, said Canadians had the right to know why the warnings went nowhere for three years and what Canada did to