Calamitous Afghanistan exit a stain on Canada’s reputation.
No excuse for the Canadian government
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a disaster, though there was never going to be a good time to leave. Footage of the chaos at the airport is disturbing and the United States government has been rightly criticized for its botched withdrawal. Yes, the collapse of the Afghan regime seemed to take everyone by surprise and all the western allies are facing the same challenges. However, some have coped better than others. Canada’s exit attempt, it appears, has been appalling.
Canadian officials left Kabul and closed the Canadian Embassy before the Taliban arrived, and before all citizens and valued staff members could be evacuated, according to several accounts.
On Aug. 15, as the Taliban was over-running Kabul, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau issued a statement saying that “Canadian personnel … are now safely on their way back to Canada.”
Yet a recent story in Blacklock’s Reporter notes that, “The Department of Foreign Affairs closed its embassy in Kabul though it knew Canadian citizens remained trapped inside Afghanistan.”
And on Aug. 20, respected journalist Kevin Newman, the former Global National anchor who’s now working with volunteer veterans to help rescue Canadians and their interpreters from the Taliban, wrote a column for the Line newsletter saying that Canada has done an abysmal job.
“While French commandos in buses got their people out, we sent texts (in English) telling our friends to head to the airport on their own. Ten buses screamed out of France’s embassy in Kabul early this week, past every Taliban checkpoint along the way, and according to eyewitnesses, zipped confidently through a back-entrance gate and straight onto the chaotic tarmac at Hamid Karzai International Airport. Five hundred exhausted and terrified passengers were then loaded onto a French military aircraft which quickly took off,” he wrote.
As the French were busy evacuating their people, Newman said there were no buses, soldiers or escorts for the Canadians. Our people were sent texts from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and urged to head to the airport on their own, he said. This involved avoiding multiple Taliban checkpoints and the massive crowds jostling to get inside the airport and onto flights. Yet Canadian officials didn’t provide any advice on how to avoid the checkpoints, or even which gates to go to, and were not at the airport to help guide our people to safety.
As a result, around 800 Canadians and Afghans who supported us are now stuck in safe houses. As Newman pointed out, “All of our allies had eyes and boots on the ground … at Kabul’s airport. Canada did not. It closed its embassy and withdrew all its diplomats and military by jet to Ottawa just as the Taliban was rolling into town.”
By the way, the collapse of the Afghan government once the Americans decided to leave and announced a withdrawal date should not have come as a surprise to any of the allies or those on the ground, as a 2019 report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service predicted a quick “collapse” and victory for the Taliban. There is no excuse for the Canadian government not getting everyone out weeks before the Taliban reached Kabul, or at least having an evacuation plan in place that could be executed on short notice.
The blame for this mess lies squarely with the federal Liberals, which have mishandled and misunderstood most foreign policy issues that have come their way — from China to Afghanistan. Now people are imperilled and the country’s reputation has been bruised.
800 CANADIANS AND AFGHANS WHO SUPPORTED US ARE NOW STUCK IN SAFE HOUSES.