OTTAWA — Canada's military police watchdog announced Thursday three weeks of "public interest" hearings starting March 22 for its probe into the politically hot topic of Afghan detainees.

But even as legal counsel for the military police complaints commission vowed "we are bound and determined to see these hearings proceed," doubts were voiced whether they will take place.

One reason is that Friday is commission chairman Peter Tinsley's last day on the job and the government has not appointed a replacement.

Another is the snail's pace of government screening documents for national security censorship — and there are 340,000 pages to go through, a government lawyer told the commission.

"I don't think it's going to happen," said human rights lawyer Paul Champ, expressing his skepticism during and after a commission hearing into getting the probe back on the rails after a two-month suspension.

"We won't have a chair appointed or we'll get a chair appointed who doesn't want the matter to proceed," Champ said. "Or we'll have a chair appointed who wants the matter to proceed but they're not going to get the documents or access to witnesses."

The commission is where diplomat Richard Colvin's testimony about torture in Afghan prisons emerged. He was summoned to a House of Commons committee in November to testify, unleashing a political storm that has dominated Parliament ever since.

Champ represents the two organizations — Amnesty International Canada and the BC Civil Liberties Association — whose complaints triggered the commission's inquiry more than a year ago.

Tinsley himself urged the government to appoint a replacement soon, noting that the two-man panel needs a legally-trained member, which it won't have when he's gone.

Tinsley suggested his appointment should have been extended until this probe is over and noted the proceedings so far have already "been subject of so much delay and frustration for all concerned."

On the Hill, government and opposition MPs tangled over the government's censorship of detainee-related documents requested by the commission and by a special parliamentary committee into the same subject.

"This is a government that tried to strangle the military police commission from the beginning," Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff told reporters.

"The time has come for an independent inquiry with judicial powers and the capacity to have access to all the documents. That's the way to get through it."

Ignatieff blasted as "beneath contempt" Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's assertion in the House of Commons that uncensored release of documents could jeopardize operational safety of Canadian Forces in Afghanistan.

"Get serious here," Ignatieff said, noting the documents are about prisoner transfers of four years ago. "The risk of putting anybody in operational danger is about zero . . . It's too ridiculous to discuss."

Earlier, commission counsel Ron Lunau said the commission could look into the Afghan prisoner abuse case revealed by Gen. Walter Natynczyk on Wednesday. Lunau said the commission could summon witnesses and documents if it finds the case relevant to its probe into allegations Canadians transferred detainees to Afghan authorities when they had "reason to believe they would be abused."

On Wednesday Natynczyk, chief of defence staff, reversed his denial that a Taliban suspect assaulted by Afghan police in June 2006 had been in the custody of Canadian Forces. A commander told him they took pictures of the captive before handing him over in case he was assaulted as others had been.