Ottawa’s failure is ongoing

1,250 Canadians left behind in Afghanistan

As the Taliban took to the streets of Kabul Tuesday to celebrate their control of much of Afghanistan, the scale of Canada’s debacle in that country was becoming clear.

What was also becoming clear was that our failure is ongoing.

Worryingly, Canada’s hopes for getting thousands of people safely out of that country appear to rest on the Taliban honouring their word that they will grant safe passage to people holding Canadian visas.

The number of Canadians left behind in Afghanistan was revealed Tuesday when Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said there were 1,250 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their families still trapped in the country, where the Taliban claims it now controls more territory than it did before the 2001 U.S. invasion.

That would be the same Taliban who, as seen in a video circulating Tuesday, were dangling one man from a Black Hawk helicopter (some news reports said it was an American interpreter who had been hanged). Considering that the Taliban has assured the international community that there would be no revenge attacks, the airborne horror suggests their promise might not be their bond.

Politicians, including Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, like to talk about Afghans and Afghan allies that have been stranded, as if Canadian citizens were not also stuck in Afghanistan. Well, now we know definitively that there are — and there are a lot of them.

What we don’t know is how many “vulnerable” Afghan allies — such as interpreters who aided Canadian soldiers — are still there, but they likely number in the thousands.

We know, for instance, that Canada airlifted 3,700 people out of a list of 8,000 people who wanted to come to Canada. Some of those 8,000 may also have made it to a safe third country, but we don’t know.

We do know that Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino said that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had answered 9,000 calls and 4,600 emails from people.

So it appears almost certain that apart from the 1,250 Canadians, permanent residents and their families, there are thousands more who have reached out to Canada but are stuck.

Two major criticisms have been labelled at Canada’s rescue efforts: We started evacuating people too late and there was too much bureaucratic red tape in the way of people trying to escape that was put up by Canadian officials.

That we were caught flat-footed was acknowledged by Garneau on Sunday in an interview with CTV.

“In terms of the criticism of us starting too late — fair enough, fair enough,” Garneau said. “Nobody anticipated the speed with which the Taliban would take over the country, including probably the Taliban themselves, and how quickly the Afghan National Army would either surrender or flee, but it happened.”

But the issue of red-tape bungling appears to be ongoing and not officially recognized.

At the briefing Tuesday, Mendicino was asked by two different reporters why Canada had rescinded “facilitation letters” signed and verified by Canada that were intended to help get Afghans through Taliban checkpoints and to the airport. The Globe and Mail’s Robert Fife said new letters were going out saying that the letters “no longer served the purpose.”

Were the facilitation letters still valid or did people have to apply for new visas? asked Lisa Laflamme of CTV.

In response to both, Mendicino talked of how the Taliban had moved the goalposts; how Canada wanted to ensure whatever documents were used would enable people to get through checkpoints; and how officials were acting very quickly “in real time” to what was happening on the ground.

However, he never answered the question about what will happen to those people with those facilitation papers, whether they were still valid or whether people might have to reapply for new documentation.

So what happens to those Canadian citizens and Afghan allies still trapped, some stuck with outdated and potentially useless documentation?

“Stay put,” was Garneau’s suggestion.

Mendicino noted Canada was working with the U.S. and others on the possibility of creating additional evacuation capacity through the establishment of “air bridges.” But without U.S. boots on the ground, the possibility of further rescue flights seems too much like a pipe dream.

Mendicino also said Canada and international partners were working on creating a right of safe passage for Afghans wanting to flee. But as Garneau said, it was in the hands of the Taliban whether safe passage would be granted.

So our best hope for these people is apparently the good graces of the Taliban.

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, the prime minister seems reluctant to talk about Afghanistan, usually the topic is raised by reporters asking him a question.

In response to a question on Tuesday, Trudeau talked of how the world had watched in dismay at what had happened in the last few weeks in Afghanistan.

However, in Afghanistan there are thousands — many of them citizens of this country — who are watching in dismay as we here in Canada bungle efforts to rescue them.