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.