But it’s clear O’Toole was going to bat for Afghan interpreters who helped Canada long before the issue hit the headlines
Article content
As the catastrophe in Afghanistan continues to unfold following U.S. President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of troops from that country, questions have been raised about Afghan interpreters who assisted Canadian forces and are now left in the lurch as the Taliban takes over. Asked about Afghans trying to flee the country, including interpreters and their families, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the “limiting factor” on their evacuation is not “paperwork” or “connections with the Canadian government” but “people being unable to get to the airport, people being unable to actually leave the country.”
Article content
This begs the question: why didn’t the Trudeau government see the writing on the wall when Biden made his announcement that the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan back in April? It was as late as July 23 when Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced a special program to relocate some Afghans to Canada. The government claimed Monday that 807 Afghan refugees and 34 Canadian diplomats had been evacuated from Kabul, (with another 188 reportedly airlifted out Friday). There are potentially thousands of others still in jeopardy on the ground and awaiting evacuation.
Conservative leader Erin O’Toole has said the Trudeau government was “asleep at the switch” on this issue, and it would be hard to disagree. Trudeau and the Liberal campaign frequently invoke former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper as a bogey man. But an honest evaluation of the Harper government’s strengths and weaknesses must include the fact that Harper initiated the first program to relocate Afghan staff including interpreters, who assisted Canadian forces in Kandahar as long ago as 2009. Under this program, initiated by then immigration minister Jason Kenney, about 800 people were brought to Canada before the program expired in 2011.
Article content
Despite their professed commitment to human rights in general and the cause of refugees in particular, the Trudeau government took no special effort to relocate more Afghans who had helped Canada since coming to power in 2015, preferring instead to increase the general intake of refugees.
Indeed, O’Toole, a former Veteran Affairs minister, interceded with successive immigration ministers to try to help bring some of the Afghan interpreters to a new life in Canada. For instance, in January 2016, then immigration minister John McCallum facilitated the relocation to Canada of Afghan interpreter James Akam, after O’Toole brought his plight to McCallum’s attention. The minister went so far as to tweet to a Toronto Sun journalist that he had directed his department to speed up processing Akam’s relocation request as his original application was bogged down in bureaucratic procedure.
Article content
Others, however, have not been so lucky. In April 2017, O’Toole again intervened with new immigration minister Ahmed Hussen, on behalf of another interpreter trying to get out of Afghanistan, Karim Amiry. Rather than McCallum’s hands on approach, he was rebuffed with a boiler plate letter from Hussen saying he couldn’t do anything to help. Human rights groups that advocate on behalf of translators have been similarly frustrated with the lack of response over the years from the Trudeau government.
Red T, for example, is a New York based organization working for translators around the world, and their president Maya Hess, wrote to Hussen in 2018 requesting a meeting to make the case for interpreters in Afghanistan who helped Canadian forces. He did not reply to her letter. Ironically, Amiry finally, after a four-year wait, arrived in Canada a week ago on a chartered flight under the current relocation program. But many others like him remain trapped in Afghanistan.
The Trudeau government has shown remarkably little foresight in planning and preparing for what was sure to be a train wreck in Afghanistan once the Americans pulled out. We’ve had a lot of fine rhetoric from the prime minister in the last few days since the fall of Kabul, but it’s clear O’Toole was going to bat for Afghan interpreters who helped Canada long before the issue hit the headlines.
National Post
The big issues are far from settled. Sign up for the NP Comment newsletter, NP Platformed.
Rupa Subramanya: Trudeau blames Afghans for not getting to the airport fast enough - National Post
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment