Afghan Interpreters, Others Fast-tracking to Canada

[Remius]

Canadian Dave and his efforts to save as many as he and his team could.

To me, his actions should result in an 'Order of Canada' but what do I know.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/canadian-dave-former-soldier-help-rescue-afghan-refugees-1.6168082

You can nominate him.

Nominate Someone

Do you know someone who’s changing the game? A role model whose achievements stand above the rest?

www.gg.ca

 

[Czech_pivo]

You can nominate him.

Nominate Someone

Do you know someone who’s changing the game? A role model whose achievements stand above the rest?

www.gg.ca

I might just do that.
According to this article this guy was the only CDN at HKIA for what 4/5 days before we had any one else on the ground. He certainly was not getting paid a penny from the Feds to be doing this. He most likely had no official title, role or legitimacy while he was there. To me, its quite something, it talks about a sense of duty, a sense of responsibility, a sense of doing the right thing under less than ideal circumstances with no expectation of any personal gain.

EDIT: I am looking into the process and have reached out to some of the individuals stated in the CBC story. I am more than open for any other help/suggestions that any of you may be willing to offer.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Few more makin' it out (including Canadians) ...

An estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left Afghanistan on a commercial flight out of Kabul on Thursday, the first such large-scale departure since U.S. and other forces completed their frantic withdrawal over a week ago.

The Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked a breakthrough in the bumpy coordination between the U.S. and Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers. A dayslong standoff over charter planes at another airport has left dozens of passengers stranded.

A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media, provided the number of Westerners on the Qatar flight and said two senior Taliban officials helped facilitate the departure — the new foreign minister and deputy prime minister.

Americans, U.S. green card holders and other nationalities, including Germans, Hungarians and Canadians, were aboard, the official said ...

 

[OldSolduer]

You can nominate him.

Nominate Someone

Do you know someone who’s changing the game? A role model whose achievements stand above the rest?

www.gg.ca

I served with this Canadian Dave from 83-86. Good to see him around.

 

[The Bread Guy]

This just out: "Peter MacKay: Stranding our Afghan allies was an epic failure on Canada's part"

Meanwhile, back when he was defence minister (from 2011) ....

.... “The Government does not make decisions about individual cases based on political considerations,” (immigration minister Jason) Kenney asserts. “Nor does the editorial board of the Toronto Star, which does not have the benefit of all the relevant facts, get to decide who qualifies for government programs.

“We leave such decisions to highly-trained and competent civil servants. They have decided that Mr. Sharifi is not eligible under this program.”

Besides, Kenney says, Sharifi and other interpreters were paid for their services — as if that absolves Canadians of whatever might happen after we leave them to fend for themselves against the common enemy that our government’s strategy failed to defeat.

“The program is not designed to allow every Afghan who helped the Canadian armed forces to move here,” Kenney says. “The Afghans who helped Canadian troops were paid for their service and had no further expectations when they signed on to work with the military campaign to win their freedom and secure their country.

“The program I established was designed to help those who face specific, individualized threats to their lives as a direct result of having worked with Canadian troops as translators.” ...

Would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall during cabinet meetings discussing this issue back then ....

 

[Takeniteasy]

Canadian Dave and his efforts to save as many as he and his team could.

To me, his actions should result in an 'Order of Canada' but what do I know.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/canadian-dave-former-soldier-help-rescue-afghan-refugees-1.6168082

The OC is for a body of work not for an individual act. You can nominate him for an MSN in my eyes. Otherwise lets talk about his history in the CAF and how he perpetuated the misogyny and dislike of anything other than heteronormative males. In my opinion he should be praciticing out of sight and out of mind.

 

[daftandbarmy]

The OC is for a body of work not for an individual act. You can nominate him for an MSN in my eyes. Otherwise lets talk about his history in the CAF and how he perpetuated the misogyny and dislike of anything other than heteronormative males. In my opinion he should be praciticing out of sight and out of mind.

 

[CBH99]

The OC is for a body of work not for an individual act. You can nominate him for an MSN in my eyes. Otherwise lets talk about his history in the CAF and how he perpetuated the misogyny and dislike of anything other than heteronormative males. In my opinion he should be praciticing out of sight and out of mind.

Care to elaborate at all?? (I don’t know the man from Adam, but I’m curious as to why you say this?)

 

[CBH99]

This just out: "Peter MacKay: Stranding our Afghan allies was an epic failure on Canada's part"

Meanwhile, back when he was defence minister (from 2011) ....

Would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall during cabinet meetings discussing this issue back then ....

Agreed.

Perhaps the media could request a few examples of these contracts, as they seem quite familiar with the FOIP/Request for Information procedures.

Request a few of these documents, so we can all see for ourselves what was promised & included, and what wasn’t.

For a party that initially got elected based on ‘Sunny Ways’ and promises of transparency, surely this would be doable. Yes?

 

[CBH99]

Few more makin' it out (including Canadians) ...

When this all first started to happen (re: Operation S**t Show) - there were a LOT of questions being asked, along with strong emotions being felt - by some more than others, for good reason.

I am curious though (I asked before, and I apologize if someone did answer. Now that this thread isn’t so busy, as the situation is over, it will be easier to follow…)

**Who the hell are ‘all these Canadians’ that were/are in Afghanistan? And why are they there?


I understand embassy staff, and staff from GAC.

I understand the Nepalese contractors who we hired for embassy security, along with other contractors the government hired. (Not Canadian citizens, but I understand our clear obligation to help ensure their safety.)

I understand Canadians working for NGO’s. Especially NGO’s that were hired by our government, or were working hand in hand with our government.

- Surely there couldn’t have been that many Canadian citizens in the country, given embassy/GAC staff and a handful of Canadian citizens working with NGO’s.

- Other than contractors we were employing at the time, who the hell else was over there? And why?


For the record - if I ever immigrate to another country, because my own country is in a state of civil war/warlords/poverty/corruption/violence/lack of opportunities, etc - I don’t expect anybody to come rescue me if I decide to go back for a wbileand s**t goes down.

Especially when the group of violent religious fanatics have signed a peace deal - basically an approved road map - and are already starting to come back in force.



If I’m working for the government when things go completely sideways - absolutely. Send a C-17, or a few C-130s, to come pick us up.

If I’m working for a NGO that the government hired? Again, wouldn’t mind a quick pick up please.

But if I’m ‘just there’ because… meh. No. I don’t want people to risk their lives to come get me out of a mess that I shouldn’t be in, in the first place.


(I realize I’m probably missing something and sound like an insensitive jerk. I don’t mean to sound ignorant, just frustratingly confused.)

 

[The Bread Guy]

... **Who the hell are ‘all these Canadians’ that were/are in Afghanistan? And why are they there? ...

Actually a good question - different kettle of fish evacuating terps who helped Canadian troops & their families vs. people with Canadian passports who spend a ton of time there, well, because various reasons.

Both groups need to be dealt with and/or supported, but in different ways and with different levels of urgency - with some mulling done, for example, after evacuations of Canadians out of various shit storms elsewhere in the past.

 

[Halifax Tar]

Actually a good question - different kettle of fish evacuating terps who helped Canadian troops & their families vs. people with Canadian passports who spend a ton of time there, well, because various reasons.

Both groups need to be dealt with and/or supported, but in different ways and with different levels of urgency - with some mulling done, for example, after evacuations of Canadians out of various shit storms elsewhere in the past.

Passports/citizens of convenience ?

 

[The Bread Guy]

Passports/citizens of convenience ?

One man's citizen of convenience is another's citizen free to travel and live where s/he wants as long as s/he's following all the Canadian rules about citizenship & residency. East Germany was less than fully successful, in the longer term, with its own exit management regime, right?

Meanwhile, more details about a couple of the escapees who got out via Ukrainian help (text also attached in case link doesn't work for you).

 

[The Bread Guy]

Speaking of "who are all these Canadians?" - highlights mine ....

Two weeks after Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau said 1,250 people with ties to Canada remain in Afghanistan, a government source puts the current number even higher, at about 1,280.

A source speaking on background breaks that down to include about 440 Canadian citizens, 260 permanent residents and about 580 family members, which together represent about 240 family groupings ...

 

[The Bread Guy]

AFG terps in Canada: do more, guys ....

Two hundred Afghan interpreters who worked with the Canadian Forces are expected to gather at Parliament Hill for a hunger strike on Wednesday to press Ottawa into getting their families out of Afghanistan.

Protest organizer Hayat Khan said that roughly 5,000 extended family members of interpreters remain stuck in the country as the new Taliban government takes control of a country mired in economic crisis and pending food shortages.

Many family members, he said, have been in hiding since the Taliban seized power last month. To highlight their dilemma, protesters have scheduled the hunger strike to last three days and they will camp out on Parliament Hill if permitted ...

If link doesn't work, text also attached for purposes of research, private study or education under the Fair Dealing provisions of Canada's Copyright Act.

 

[The Bread Guy]

In The Netherlands, someone falls on their sword ....

Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag has resigned over her handling of the Afghan evacuation crisis last month.

She is the first Western government official to step down over the chaos that followed the Taliban takeover.

Dutch MPs had passed a motion of censure against her, saying the government was too slow to respond and left behind many Afghans who should have been able to flee.

Ms Kaag said she stood by her actions but accepted the MPs' verdict.

She acknowledged the government had been slow and muddled when reacting to warnings about a surge of the Taliban.

The Netherlands managed to evacuate around 2,000 people from Afghanistan in the last two weeks of August.

But hundreds of local staff and people who had worked as interpreters with Dutch troops were left behind ...

Edited to add her statement ....

‘Madam Chair,

Yesterday, we had an intensive, intense debate about the Dutch evacuation amid the acute crisis in Afghanistan.

I have reflected at length about what worked, and what did not, in terms of our own response and that of other countries. The House has decided that the government acted irresponsibly. And even though I stand firmly behind our efforts, I have no choice, as the responsible minister, but to accept the consequences of that decision. In my conception of democracy and our political culture, a minister is obliged to step down if their policy is censured. I will therefore submit my resignation as Minister of Foreign Affairs to His Majesty the King.

Foreign Affairs was my passion. This is no secret to anyone. It is my heart; it is who I am. It was therefore a great honour and an enormous pleasure to be part of the third Rutte government, first as Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation and then as Minister of Foreign Affairs. I accepted the latter position in May of this year because I was asked to do so, and I tried to be worthy of the office and invest it with value, to the best of my ability.

Our efforts in Afghanistan will continue. Without me, obviously. But I am convinced that the staff at the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence will keep up their outstanding work, as a team, as individuals – undaunted, courageous and honourable. And I thank them deeply for everything they have done and will do, and for the way they supported me as a minister with various hats.

And I would like to express my thanks not only to Prime Minister Rutte – Mark – for his trust in me but also to my colleagues in the government for a pleasant working relationship. I have asked the other ministers and state secretaries from D66 to remain in their positions, in the interests of the country and the challenges facing the caretaker government, and they are willing to do so. Thank you very much. God bless you.’

 

[Good2Golf]

You sure don’t see that kind of self-imposed accountability from a politician very often these days.

Minister Kaag certainly couldn’t be accused of failing to hold herself accountable.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Minister Kaag certainly couldn’t be accused of failing to hold herself accountable.

You can include NLD's defence minister in that category now, too ....

The Dutch defense minister quit Friday, a day after parliament passed a motion of censure against her for her handling of chaotic evacuations from Kabul of translators who worked for Dutch forces in Afghanistan.

Ank Bijleveld is the second minister in the Netherlands' caretaker coalition government to resign over the evacuations, following the foreign minister, Sigrid Kaag.

Kaag stepped down immediately after the parliamentary censure motion was passed Thursday night. Bijleveld initially said she would remain in office but quit Friday afternoon amid political debate over why she refused to follow Kaag's example.

In a brief press statement Friday announcing her resignation, Bijleveld explained why she initially chose to stay in office.

“I wanted to continue to complete the task that I stand for," she said. "For the men and women who are on the front lines and to complete the job of bringing to safety the translators who are still in Afghanistan and who are counting on us.”

But she added that, "I see that my decision to remain in office has become the subject of discussion. As a result, I can no longer adequately take responsibility for my people.” ...

 

[OldSolduer]

Care to elaborate at all?? (I don’t know the man from Adam, but I’m curious as to why you say this?)

So am I.

 

[Good2Golf]

Good on ex-Minister Bijleveldt, as well.

My father-in-law, who grew up in Nazi-occupied Holland but passed several years ago from cancer, would be proud of his birthland (and probably equally ashamed of his adoptive home here in Canada).