Thank you very much for allowing me to speak with the group.
I have spent a great deal of time in Afghanistan. I did four combat camera embeds with six NATO countries. I am currently helping to sponsor a number of families, two of which are in Pakistan. I have been struggling, of course, with IRCC's capabilities, etc.
I'd like to start off with a two-minute clip from Burkas2Bullets, which I want to show to bring everyone up to speed on Afghanistan and the reason we're here this evening.
I will finish up with the final three minutes. It's just two minutes, so we can start it now, please.
[Video presentation]
Thank you very much.
One of the reasons why I wanted to show that clip is the continual presence of ISIS-K and the attacks at the airport, which of course you know about, that happened in Kabul. My two families were at the airport at the time. Luckily, they were not injured. Sadly, I had to have them go back to the airport to attempt a military airlift, which they were not able to get on to, due to the Taliban blocking the terminal.
My main presence here this evening is because the so-called operation Afghan safety program has not expedited the refugee requests. IRCC is understaffed. We are not able to get families, who have been in flight for seven months in third countries, access to Canadian embassies, because the staff are overwhelmed with requests.
I have two families, as I said, who are being privately sponsored, and we have great help from Canadians and Rotarians, etc. Many of you know that Canada arrived late to the evacuation and left early with planes half full. We left our fixers and translators in limbo. The families I am currently supporting and helping are fixers I worked with for years. They're in flight because they are on Taliban lists.
Canada has left them stranded. The Taliban have Canadian blood on their hands. I do not believe we should be negotiating with them. Qatar should be doing a great deal more, and the UAE countries. I do not support Canada sending money to Afghanistan.
The Taliban are using starvation techniques to control the population—a standard war crime—and this is one of the reasons why we need to support IRCC more. We need to get money into the immigration program so that families such as the ones I've been helping for seven months, with Rotarians' help, will be able to get into Canada.