Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of our members for correcting what happened earlier.
...left behind were people who had tried—with the coalition's encouragement—to advance security, freedom, opportunity and dignity in their country. Within Afghanistan, there is now a tableau of vulnerability; millions of people trying to avoid hunger, destitution, or retaliation.
Afghanistan is not only one of the many crises in distant parts of the world; Canada has a legacy there. Consequently, the Taliban's takeover has deep emotional significance for Canadians, as well as implications for Canadian public policy. At the peak of Canada's mission in Afghanistan, “approximately 2,950 Canadian soldiers and over 120 civilian personnel were deployed to Afghanistan.” Cumulatively, more than 40,000 members of the Canadian Armed Forces...served in Afghanistan between December 2001 and March 2014, as part of the operations—at different times and with different mandates—in Kabul and Kandahar. Taken together, the counterterrorism, stabilization, combat, support, and training missions undertaken by Canada were its largest military deployment since the Second World War, with 158 members of the CAF and one Canadian diplomat losing their lives in service [to Canada]. Furthermore, Canada has provided $3.8 billion in international assistance to Afghanistan since 2001.
Over almost 20 years of international partnership with Afghanistan, many Afghans experienced improved access to healthcare and education. They were also able to participate in efforts—however flawed and incomplete—to build a democracy that was connected to the world. It is these gains that are now at risk.
To learn lessons from what transpired and to determine how Canada can help Afghan people who worked alongside the thousands of Canadian Armed Forces, diplomatic and development personnel who served in the country, the House of Commons created a Special Committee on Afghanistan (the Special Committee). It was mandated,
...to conduct hearings to examine and review the events related to the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, including, but not limited to, the government's contingency planning for that event and the subsequent efforts to evacuate, or otherwise authorize entry to Canada of, Canadian citizens, and interpreters, contractors and other Afghans who had assisted the Canadian Armed Forces or other Canadian organizations, and that the special committee conduct its work with the primary objective of assessing the humanitarian assistance to be put in place by Canada to assist the Afghan people [...].
The Special Committee was instructed to present a final report within six months of its creation on 8 December 2021.
To accomplish this task, the Special Committee has received testimony and briefs from a range of individuals and organizations, including those that are trying to meet humanitarian needs in Afghanistan. It has heard moving stories and appeals from people with family and colleagues who have been unable to leave Afghanistan or are in precarious situations in neighbouring countries, and those who are trying to help them. The Special Committee was also briefed on the government's response by Global Affairs Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces.
The report that follows is structured in two parts. The first is retrospective, examining the August 2021 evacuation from Kabul and the events that led up to it, including the assessments and decisions that were made. The second part is forward-looking. It details the humanitarian situation inside Afghanistan, and the efforts to bring Afghan nationals who are at risk to safety, as well as the impediments that are being encountered. The dedicated focus on this one country, at a time of great instability in the world, reflects the obligations that stem from Canada’s years of military, development and diplomatic involvement in Afghanistan and the enormity of needs and vulnerabilities that exist.
Part I: Looking Back.
The Fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban
On 14 April 2021, President Joe Biden announced that the United States (U.S.) would begin the final withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan on 1 May 2021, in keeping with the 29 February 2020 agreement his country–under the administration of President Donald Trump–had reached with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar. The rationale for intervening in Afghanistan in October 2001 had been “to ensure Afghanistan would not be used as a base from which to attack [the U.S.] homeland again,” an objective that President Biden said had been “accomplished.” The United States could not, he remarked, “continue the cycle of extending or expanding our military presence in Afghanistan, hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal, and expecting a different result.” Following consultations within his administration and with allies and partners, President Biden concluded that it was “time to end America’s longest war.”
After declaring that “there is no military solution to the challenges Afghanistan faces,” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Allies announced on the same day that they too would begin the withdrawal of Resolute Support Mission forces—