Is this still for me?
Evidence of meeting #5 for Afghanistan in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pakistan.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #5 for Afghanistan in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pakistan.
A video is available from Parliament.
7:15 p.m.
Deputy Executive Director, Aman Lara
Certainly we are not in direct communication with the Taliban, and we can't suggest that they guarantee anything. What we can say—and Mr. Lavery could corroborate this—is that we have been highly successful, with the support of Raven Rae Resources and their team, in moving around Afghanistan. There are mechanisms by which we can bring people in and get people out, so the notion of executing a team to perform the function that Mr. Macdonald described is eminently possible, based on our pretty robust experience.
7:15 p.m.
Liberal
Fayçal El-Khoury Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
Mr. Lavery, when you were participating in operations there, were the Taliban in power, yes or no?
From your experience, what can we do now to better ensure the safety of women in Afghanistan?
7:15 p.m.
As an Individual
That's the loaded one, but let me go quickly.
Yes, the Taliban right now—the de facto authorities of Afghan—have complete control of everything at this stage, and they are clamping down.
How can we better support the women who are still in Afghanistan? Again, I think that's going to be a political intervention. We're going to have to have diplomatic resolve at a higher level, keeping pressure on the de facto government right now to try to hold them accountable. They are still under the limelight. They are under the spotlight right now. However, as we see the war efforts going on in Ukraine, that's going to have dynamic effects on Afghanistan.
7:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you very much, Mr. Lavery.
Thank you, Mr. El-Khoury. It was perfect timing.
We will go to my dear friend on the Bloc side, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, for six minutes.
7:20 p.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being with us today. I appreciate what you've done, what you continue to do and what you will be doing in the near future to help the Afghan people.
This is a very important committee. Our focus is the current humanitarian crisis. We are trying to figure out what can be done now and in the very near term.
A number of NGO representatives who appeared before the committee told us how difficult it was to carry out their mission in Afghanistan, delivering goods, providing humanitarian services and so forth. Since the Taliban are considered a terrorist entity, one of the challenges faced by NGOs who work with the Taliban is that they could be prosecuted under the Canadian Criminal Code. The NGOs are not to blame; in order to carry out their mission, they have to work with the Taliban.
Two weeks ago, I put forward a motion calling on the government to give NGOs assurance that they would not be prosecuted. This would have allowed NGOs to conduct their co‑operative and humanitarian assistance work in the areas most at risk. Unfortunately, the Liberal Party—which, by the way, has a significant number of members on this committee—rejected the motion.
I wonder what message that sent to the NGOs on the ground.
I'd like to hear from Mr. Macdonald, Ms. Taylor, Ms. Long and Mr. Lavery, in that order.
7:20 p.m.
Executive Director, Aman Lara
You're absolutely right. There is a challenge certainly in dealing with the Taliban or providing aid in Afghanistan, because it is an identified terrorist organization. I'm not a lawyer. I can't speak to the legalities of it. What I can tell you is that we conduct operations despite the Taliban, and we do our best to assure the safety of people in-country. We follow the law and we get people out of there, and we work closely with the Canadian government to do it. With those principles in mind, we assure the security of our people and ensure that they can get out of Afghanistan.
7:20 p.m.
Director, Afghan-Canadian Interpreters
ACI doesn't directly...and has never given any kind of money or had in-country operations. Although I do understand how NGOs can be handcuffed by that legislation, I'm not in a position to comment on what needs to be done to facilitate their ability to work within that sphere.
7:20 p.m.
As an Individual
Thank you very much. That is a very hot topic to begin with, but I can assure the panel that all our members—my members supporting the asset team—govern ourselves with best practices. We do not provide the de facto government direct funds. We cannot do that at this stage. We will not.
As for humanitarian assistance and work, and funds and development towards that, we know the UN is doing it. We know the UN is being provided support from the de facto government in providing escorts to move their charitable goods and their catering out into the field. It is happening at other levels.
I was back in-country last December, and I was meeting with many of the de facto government people in the ministry of the interior, the police departments, etc. They never come right out and ask for funds or any of that kind of stuff. It was one of those situations where we were not put into that position. It is a sensitive area we all have to be aware of. I think it should be something we look at more closely from the government's point of view.
7:20 p.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Lavery, I was especially moved by your remarks. I have two questions for you.
First, what disappoints you the most about the government's response to the crisis in Afghanistan? Second, what recommendations should the committee make to help people on the ground immediately?
7:20 p.m.
As an Individual
My biggest disappointment would be leaving all the people behind who we don't need to leave behind. We left so many people back there. In living it for 12 days in and out, and dealing with all our people on this panel trying to get as many people out as possible, and watching something unfold that we should have had a better grip of, I think our government could have done a better job. We should have been in dialogue, as we heard from all the other guest speakers.
We should have had better coordination, and with it better planning and appointing a perfect organization. I'm not going to blow our own horn but I can tell you right now it is working. We're the only ones getting people out the way we're getting them out. Give us the opportunity to get more people out. Work with us and we will work with the government. That is the biggest message right now.
We can do it. We're showing we're doing it. We need the support. We shouldn't be carrying and heavy lifting all of this on our own. This is a collective event. The objective is to get everybody out.
This is no longer an evacuation phase. We're now moving people out. The crisis has gone over and now we're worried it's going to shift elsewhere.
7:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe, you have six seconds, so it's your call. You have only six seconds.
7:25 p.m.
Bloc
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe Bloc Lac-Saint-Jean, QC
Mr. Lavery, do you think the government will fulfill its promise of bringing 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada by next year?
7:25 p.m.
As an Individual
If you leave it for Aman Lara and us, yes, we will.
7:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you very much, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe.
Now we will go to our last member of Parliament on this round.
Madam Kwan, you have six minutes, please. Go ahead.
7:25 p.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses for your service and for your continuous efforts.
I'd like to ask all the panellists this question. You all raised the point that there are things you can do and you have talked to officials about that. My question is, when did you talk to these officials? Who are they and what was their response?
Maybe I can start with Ms. Long and go in the direction in which each presenter appeared.
7:25 p.m.
Director, Afghan-Canadian Interpreters
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Originally, you start with your MP. My MP was very aware that I had been advocating for first one Afghan interpreter and then others.
In January of 2019, I compiled a letter and an appeal from various veterans and current military for him to present to Minister Hussen, who was minister at the time, appealing for a meeting with them, with him or with a point person. Nothing came out of it. I followed up on it for the next month, and there was just no response from the minister or anyone from that department.
With IRCC, it had to be the point person. There was no actual policy in place to bring these people over, and it had to be a public policy decision. Given the immigration measures that were in effect at that time, there had to be a new public policy or an implementation of a previous one. IRCC had to be the entity to have that discussion with.
Mr. Powlowski had been trying for years as well, as had other veterans who had raised it back in 2006 and 2007 in the Thunder Bay area.
7:25 p.m.
Executive Director, Aman Lara
Thanks very much.
We consider ourselves partners with the Government of Canada. We have regular meetings with officials from IRCC and Global Affairs Canada. We meet with them almost weekly. As well, we have weekly meetings with ministerial staff. I must say that I am impressed with the attention they give us. They certainly give us time. They listen to our requests. We have a good flow of information.
We have made these points to you tonight and we've made them to them. I understand that these situations are challenging. None of these requests are easy. We are continuing to work with them. As my colleague, Ms. Taylor, said tonight, we are optimistic when we see the measures that have been applied to the Ukraine. In these dialogues with officials and ministerial staff, we're going to push them in that direction. We need them to bring these measures to Afghanistan so we have a pathway for the humanitarian cases in particular, and for people who are undocumented.
We have good access. We have good dialogue on a regular basis with staff. As I said right from the beginning, I am optimistic that we will come to them with a solution to do identification verification in Afghanistan. Hopefully we can get them across the finish line and get that option implemented.
I want to stress to Wendy, who's on the call tonight—