Afghanistan committee  Thank you for giving us the opportunity to answer this very important question. In my opinion, the two most important suggestions we could make have already been brought up during the meeting. The first would be to eliminate all requirements around documents that must be provid

Afghanistan committee  I'll add a comment, and then I'll let my colleague Dr. Maley answer. Thank you so much, honourable member, for your question, and for your service to my country. We owe you a debt of gratitude. It's unfortunate that despite your sacrifices, the country has come to the state and

Afghanistan committee  Absolutely. I would echo what our friends Ms. Nasiri and Ms. Oates said. There needs to be a dialogue. I said earlier that the presence of Canada on the ground in Pakistan is, in its way, one form of dialogue that Canada must have with Pakistan. In a similar fashion, Canada can h

Afghanistan committee  I absolutely am, yes. I feel this bill is even more important in today's environment and more timely than ever. Before the election and before Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, the purpose of the bill was to ensure that financial aid sent to Afghanistan was distributed equally th

Afghanistan committee  Yes, absolutely. I'd like to add one last comment. Over the past few months, we've noticed that when aid provided to Afghanistan by the U.N. or other international agencies has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, it has forced the Afghan people to work for it to gain access to

Afghanistan committee  Thank you for that very valid and important question. Truth be told, all Afghans are suffering now, yes. The Taliban are an enemy and a danger to all Afghan people. When people leave the country to go to Iran or Pakistan, for example, just all that travelling and crossing the b

Afghanistan committee  That is true, unfortunately. That was one of the suggestions we made in a number of open letters to the Canadian government. We need official representation in Pakistan, Iran and all other neighbouring countries to engage in a dialogue and set up a process, much like our friends

Afghanistan committee  I will defer to my colleague, Professor Maley, who can better answer that question, if you wouldn't mind.

Afghanistan committee  We reached out to IRCC and the minister in the early stages of the crisis. We've had some conversations with them, and we had one meeting with former minister Mendicino, but beyond that, we haven't had any interactions ever since.

Afghanistan committee  We certainly had a very productive meeting with the minister at the time. We made some recommendations to them in terms of how we could move forward: how we could, as an organization that has ears on the ground and eyewitness accounts, be useful, and also how to improve the proce

Afghanistan committee  No.

Afghanistan committee  Absolutely. Mr. Chair, the last two points would be these: first, on the 40,000 refugees that Canada has committed to, to increase that and to have a more precise approach on how it intends to accomplish that; and finally, to remove any impediment on private sponsorship and the

Afghanistan committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I want to thank you and your colleagues for the opportunity to participate in this very important discussion. Mr. Chair, I'm not going to repeat here today what we had already conveyed to the House of Commons human rights subcommittee in June 2021,

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of the Canadian Hazara Humanitarian Services, I thank this committee and the Canadian Parliament for granting us this opportunity to raise the voices of the many thousands of Hazara victims who have perished in Afghanistan and the many thousands m

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes, I have it as neither. It's off.