Concerns is growing about the fate of thousands of Afghans that Canada promised to resettle when the Taliban took control of the country last year.
The federal government is reportedly winding down the special immigration program to bring 18,000 Afghans who assisted Canada. That includes interpreters for the military and their families.
So far, 15,070 applications have been received with 10,730 approved, but only 7,205 have arrived in Canada, according to latest figures by the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) as of July 14.
Another 9,435 have arrived through a humanitarian program for vulnerable Afghans, including LGBTQ people and human-rights defenders.
Saba Bashiry (pseudonym), an Afghan-Canadian human rights activist has been pressing the government about her six family members who are still in Afghanistan after nearly a year. Despite filing a vast amount of paperwork, the family still hasn’t had heard anything but auto-responses from the immigration department.
“They are living in fear,” she told Global News.
Reports about the program winding down were extremely disappointing for Bashiry to hear.
“It just broke my heart. I feel betrayed,” she said. “Are we not human?”
2:16 NDP accuses Ottawa of losing 2,900 files of Afghans who helped Canada
NDP accuses Ottawa of losing 2,900 files of Afghans who helped Canada – Jun 8, 2022
Despite reports of the program winding down, IRCC is pushing back and told Global News the government has not closed the program.
“The Government of Canada has not closed the Special Immigration Program for those who assisted the Government of Canada,” an IRCC spokesperson told Global News Friday.
“We continue to process applications as quickly as possible and IRCC will continue to communicate directly with approved applicants in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries to provide them with the information they need to make informed decisions,” they said.
The government conceded that there’s enough interest to fill the 18,000 spots through the special program and that there are, in fact, only 18,000 spots.
“To suggest the program is open when the 18,000 spots are spoken for, they’re lying to themselves and they’re lying to the public,” Jenny Kwan, NDP MP for Vancouver East, told Global News.
“And the sad news is this: the people who’ve been left behind, their lives are in jeopardy. If we don’t do anything about it, they will be hunted down by the Taliban. It’s a matter of time before that happens.”
In total, Canada has committed to welcoming 40,000 people from Afghanistan through special government-assisted programs and other routes, including private sponsorship.
Sally Armstrong, journalist and author of ‘Veiled Threat: The Hidden Power of the Women of Afghanistan’, said Canada’s response so far has been “shameful” with long delays and a lack of information.
“I feel the government has handled the entire file very badly,” said Armstrong, who is also the founding member of Lifeline Afghanistan.
“It’s taken too long. We’ve left people waiting. We don’t provide information and there’s really no excuse for that,” she told Global News.
4:58 Ongoing calls to bring more Afghan refugees to Canada
Ongoing calls to bring more Afghan refugees to Canada – Jun 20, 2022
Canadian charities helping Afghans say many with permission to travel to Canada are unable to get to neighbouring countries to fly here because they do not have the paperwork or passports to cross the border.
Others have been waiting so long in countries like Pakistan and Uzbekistan for their applications to be processed by Ottawa that their visas have expired and they are being sent back to Afghanistan where they face Taliban reprisals.
With reports of the program wrapping up, Lauryn Oates, from Canadian Women 4 Women in Afghanistan, says an extension should happen.
“I think that we shouldn’t give up,” she told Global News, noting she has 17 staff members still in Afghanistan who have heard nothing from the government.
“The reality is we still have allies on the ground who are in danger,” she said.
“To completely close the program, to stop it completely when the need is still there, just doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t actually honour the commitment that we made,” Oates added.
In July 2021, the federal government unveiled a new, expedited “path to protection” for Afghans who supported Canadian troops as interpreters, cultural advisers or support staff, as well as their families.
In November 2021, Ottawa opened up the pathway to permanent residency for extended family members of Afghan interpreters.
But the plan to resettle Afghan interpreters and their families has been plagued with problems, delays and controversy.
Global News reported last month that 2,900 applications from Afghans vetted by the Department of National Defence (DND) remained unaccounted for after senior DND officials testified that only 900 of 3,800 vetted applications had been approved by the IRCC.
The NDP alleged those files were lost, but Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told a parliamentary committee on May 12 that he did not “have any reason to believe any files” were missing.
However, when asked by Global News, his office didn’t provide any information about where they might be.
Armstrong said Canada needs to do better and “fix what’s wrong. I wish we could turn this around quickly,” she said. “There are people in Afghanistan who helped us and we promised to help them and now we’re failing them.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
