Tories release 2,500 heavily censored detainee docs

OTTAWA - The federal government has handed over 2,500 documents on the Afghan detainee issue, but they are heavily censored.

Opposition parties are scrambling to photocopy and study the trove, which are said to be mostly blacked out.

It's the latest government manoeuvre in a brewing constitutional clash that pits the government's right to secrecy against Parliament's right to know.

The opposition parties say they want to see all the available material on the question of how Afghan detainees have been handled.

The government says it must protect national security.

The opposition is threatening to bring in a motion declaring government ministers in contempt for refusing the release all the material.

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  Blacked-out pages from an Afghan detainee document are shown by Liberal MP Bob Rae following question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, March 25, 2010. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

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  Liberal MP Bob Rae holds up blacked-out pages from a Afghan detainee document following question period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday March 25, 2010. (Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS)