Afghanistan Committee on May 9th, 2022

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

As I said, we evacuated 3,700—

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Sorry. The question was on how many you have identified that you want to evacuate, not how many you actually evacuated.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I will ask my deputy minister to provide more specifics.

[Bill Matthews]

The last numbers I have—Chief, please correct me if I'm out of date—were that 3,800 were validated by DND and forwarded to IRCC.

The chief may have more current information.

[Gen Wayne D. Eyre]

Mr. Chair, those numbers are accurate. We received somewhere in the neighbourhood of 7,500 inquiries, or Afghans who were interested, but we were able to validate about 3,800 who had an enduring relationship with the Canadian Armed Forces.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

So 3,800 were validated, but on the 3,700 who were evacuated, how many of those 3,700 were the ones the department identified?

[Gen Wayne D. Eyre]

Mr. Chair, I don't have those numbers in front of me. The numbers we're talking about are as of April 1 of this year. It's important to note that after the evacuation efforts ceased, requests still kept coming in. In fact, they come in to this day.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I wonder if the officials, then, could table with this committee the numbers for the entire period. How many were identified before the fall of Kabul? How many were identified after the fall of Kabul? How many were evacuated during the two periods in 2021—between August 4 and 15 and between August 15 and 26—and then thereafter? Can we get that breakdown? Could we also get that information tabled to the committee?

I'm also interested in knowing how many have been left behind. Do the officials or the department track the numbers of those who were referred to IRCC? How many of those who were referred to IRCC have subsequently been evacuated or made it out of Afghanistan to safety ?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much, Ms. Kwan. Your time is up, but I will give a few minutes to Mr. Matthews.

[Bill Matthews]

Very quickly, I'm not sure we have the level of granularity the member is looking for, but in terms of the 3,800 validated, 900 have been accepted, plus their families. Those are the numbers I have. I don't have a number of what the family member would add to the 900.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much, Ms. Kwan. Your time is up.

We are going to Mr. Ruff for seven minutes, or three minutes and a half and three minutes after the Liberals.

Go ahead, please.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Thanks, Chair.

First off, I offer my thanks to General Eyre, Admiral Auchterlonie, General Meinzinger and General Boivin. I know all four of you very well and have had the pleasure and honour of serving with you. I know you continue to serve the Canadian Armed Forces, Canada and all members to the highest esteem.

General Meizinger, just on the record, all the best in your upcoming retirement. Hopefully, you have more time to continue your hockey game.

I first have a comment for you, Minister, that I want to put on the record. I disagree with what you stated earlier, when you were comparing what's going on in Ukraine and Afghanistan and there not being a fight for democracy ongoing in Afghanistan. There absolutely is a fight for democracy going on in that country.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I agree. I need to clarify—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Minister, one person at a time, please.

I will give you the time later to respond. Let the member finish, please.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

I acknowledge that I heard your comment there.

My next question is who the lead government department was for the—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

I'm sorry, Mr. Ruff. For interpretation purposes, do you want the minister to respond?

Minister, please go ahead.

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I would like to respond and clarify.

I need to be clear that there is an ongoing conflict where the legitimate government in power, a democracy, is fighting for its sovereignty. I recognize that there was some ambiguity in my earlier remarks, and I would like to clarify that I do recognize that. Of course I do. Thank you for raising it so that I could make that clarification.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Ruff.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Who was the lead government department for the evacuation of Afghanistan?

[Anita Anand, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

This was a whole-of-government approach. DND worked with IRCC and with Global Affairs very closely in ensuring that we were all working hand in hand to ensure the evacuation of as many Afghan nationals as possible.

As the chief was on the ground at the time, I will ask him if he has anything to add.

[Gen Wayne D. Eyre]

On July 27, we received a request for assistance to support this operation from GAC and IRCC, so DND and CAF were in support.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Yes. I fully acknowledge that DND was in support. My question for the minister was who the lead government department was.

Just so that you know, when we had GAC officials here last Monday, they made it very clear, according to law, that they are the lead department for these types of evacuations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

Do you want the minister to respond?

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

No. I'm good with that.

My next question would be for the military members here. You stated that the strategic advisory team went in for security purposes, I think, on April 1.

What was the composition of that force? Was it a combination of special forces or regular force personnel?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sukh Dhaliwal]

General Eyre.