Canada’s role in war raises desire to help

“What you have now is not a government that doesn’t want to help or it’s not helping because it doesn’t like Afghans or Muslims. It’s just acting a little slow. They could have acted sooner, faster, for sure.”

The Liberals’ delays in the Afghan evacuation and resettlement effort, he said, is just a result of bureaucratic red tape and a reflection of Canada’s traditional “risk-averse” approach to problems.

Both Harper then and Trudeau now have been criticized for their inaction to a global humanitarian crisis until the leadup to an election, when they’re under the pressure to respond.

For some, Canada’s direct involvement in the war on terrorism and development projects in Afghanistan along with its allies makes it inexcusable for the Trudeau government to be slow in responding to the current crisis, rolling out a special resettlement plan for Afghans in late July, shortly before the election was called.

“There’s an argument to be made for when a country is actually directly involved in creating the conditions for people to have to leave their country, that led to massive movements of refugees, then we have an even higher obligation to act,” said Queen’s University law professor Sharry Aiken.

“I feel like the federal government is kind of manipulating this narrative for political purposes.”

Like the Syrian crisis, she said, the Liberals didn’t just wake up one day and realize the Afghans who worked for them suddenly faced the threats of Taliban insurgents, who have returned and officially taken over Afghanistan since last Sunday.

In fact, members of the Afghan community in Canada have been waiting and trying to bring over their loved ones, to no avail. The veteran community has been advocating for their Afghan friends for years to bring them over to safety.

Canadian veterans have been vocal and critical of the Liberals for the government’s failure to rescue the Afghan interpreters and civilians who risked their lives to help their missions. Some have even taken upon themselves to fund and organize their own effort to save their Afghan friends.

“These issues are important to the veterans and Afghans in Canada, but they are just criticisms around the edges. It’s not a fundamental disagreement on the whole thing,” Besco explained.

But for something to emerge as a wedge issue, political parties would have to hold contrasting positions for voters to make a choice, he said.

Conservative party Leader Erin O’Toole has attacked the Liberals’ slow response to the Afghan crisis but has not offered alternatives, other than agreeing to match the Liberal commitment to resettle at least 20,000 Afghans if elected.

“You need the parties to take positions that are different enough that people can tell the difference. When all parties are all the same, then it doesn’t really matter who you vote for,” said Besco.

Resettling Afghans and dealing with the Taliban can be “dangerous issues” and leave very little room for the Conservatives to exploit, either because of the party’s own engagement in Afghanistan when in power and the fear of being labelled as anti-migrant and anti-Muslim.

“It’s difficult for them to sort of suddenly turn around and say, ‘Why are we even here?’ and things like that,” Besco said. “They are sort of caught between part of their base that doesn’t want refugees. On the other hand, if they oppose refugees, then they lose these other votes they really need to win.”

Back in Coquitlam, Kurdi said it still pains her that it took her nephews’ lives to push Canada to respond to the Syrian refugee crisis and that she struggles to this day with depression as a result of the loss. There isn’t a better time to force the Canadian government to act than during an election, in her view.

“This is all politics. When there’s a tragedy, everything is possible in the blink of an eye and people start to wake up. Canada has the capacity to bring in more than 20,000 Afghans. That’s a drop in the ocean,” Kurdi said. “People can’t be silenced. When these politicians knock on our doors and ask for our votes, we need to make them hear our voice.”