Canadian government officials have met with representatives of the Talibanon at least 13 occasions in Qatar since it swept to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, documents obtained by CBC News reveal.
The documents, obtained through access to information law, show David Sproule, Canada’s senior official for Afghanistan, has been — along with various Global Affairs Canada (GAC) officials and representatives of allied countries — pressing the Taliban for commitments on extending the right to an education to women, fighting terrorism and granting safe passage to Afghans who want to leave the country.
Unlike foreign affairs departments in the U.S. and Pakistan, Canada does not provide regular updates on its talks with the government in Afghanistan.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declined an interview request for this story, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told journalists Wednesday morning that Canada has no intention of recognizing the Taliban as Afghanistan’s government.
“The reality is, along with international partners, we have to continue to press on them to respect womens’ rights, to make sure the girls can go to school, to help the safe passage of people who want to leave Afghanistan. There is a need to engage even though we will not be recognizing them,” he said.
In a statement, GAC spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod emphasized how Sproule has been engaging the Taliban informally, with allied countries, and all would continue to press them on human-rights related issues, fighting terror and other “key priorities.”
(From left) Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, U.S. Maj.-Gen. Benjamin Freakley and David Sproule, the Canadian ambassador to Afghanistan, speak with reporters after the change of command ceremony that put Fraser in charge of coalition troops on the ground in southern Afghanistan on Feb. 28, 2006. (The Canadian Press)
The documents obtained by CBC News are mostly emails Sproule sent to his GAC colleagues. They show the Taliban has made its own requests of Canada and other countries — and has issued denials regarding the dangers faced by Afghans trying to leave, despite multiple reports by CBC News and other media outlets about those dangers.
In a meeting on Oct. 12, 2021 — not long after it took over — the Taliban asked representatives of foreign governments to reopen their embassies in Kabul.
According to a note Sproule wrote to his colleagues, Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister at the time, Amir Khan Muttaqi, also asked those governments to lift their sanctions and claimed his government was inclusive because it included ethnic minority representation and “women in government have not been fired.”
The Canadian embassy’s entrance gate after the evacuation in Kabul on August 15, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images)
During that same meeting, Sproule reported, the Taliban claimed that “people are using security as an excuse to leave the country, but are really leaving to seek economic opportunities.” Sproule said the Taliban also claimed that while it did not want anyone to leave, it would “not create hurdles if they wanted to go.”
Sproule said that the Taliban suggested that foreign governments “interested in helping women … should start by paying the salaries of 200,000 female teachers, including 28,000 in Kabul.”
Sproule reported that during his next meeting with Afghan government representatives, also in October, the Taliban acknowledged “a minor problem in cabinet” — a lack of women.
Taliban representatives also claimed, he said, that “women judges, prosecutors and others” taking part in demonstrations against the regime “are deliberately provoking security personnel to retaliate against them so they can produce video of the retaliation to back up their claims for asylum abroad.”
Taliban fighters fired into the air to disperse a rally by women in front of the education ministry building in Kabul days before the first anniversary of the hardline Islamists’ return to power on August 13, 2022. (Nava Jamshidi/Getty Images)
Sproule reported the Taliban accused “the international community” of a double standard because it “recognized many other governments that came to power by force but had the support of the people.”
He said that on Nov. 23, he asked another Taliban official (whose name and title were redacted in the documents) why they would not consider a power-sharing agreement “with respected figures outside the movement to give it added legitimacy.”
The Taliban representative agreed there would be an “advantage in doing so,” Sproule said, since the last four decades in Afghanistan showed that one political group could not fully control the country by force — but the regime was maintaining “100 per cent monopoly over power.”
Embassy intrusion
The correspondence also showed Sproule was troubled by Taliban members entering Canadian diplomatic property on Sept. 10, 2021, a little less than a month after the regime seized power and after Canada announced it was temporarily shutting its embassy and vacating staff.
A report by the British news organization Sky News from that day shows journalists entering the British and Canadian embassies accompanied by Taliban security guards. Footage from the Canadian compound shows discarded bottles of wine on the ground and a Taliban member saying, “They must have had a lot of money to eat this much … They used to eat good food, get drunk and then have sex with each other.”
The first reference to this event in Sproule’s documents comes in a note he wrote on Sept. 20, 2021. In it, he says he plans to formally register “concern about Taliban individuals entering our diplomatic property in Kabul in violation of Afghanistan’s treaty obligation to protect diplomatic property.”
The documents say Sproule brought up the event again during meetings in October and November of 2021 with different Taliban representatives. He reports he was told to “forward the video clip of the incident for the matter to be pursued.”
The last meeting between Sproule and Taliban representatives summarized in the documents took place on Feb. 16 of this year. One document says Sproule warned the Taliban that “future engagement of the international community” with their government would be “directly influenced by its actions against terrorist groups” and that Afghanistan should “not again be allowed to serve as a base for terrorist activities.”
In response, says the document, Taliban defence official Abdullah Hanefi insisted that the Taliban controlled “all of Afghanistan’s territory” and while small cells might exist, no terror group was using Afghanistan as a training ground or to finance activities.
Nipa Banerjee, a professional in residence at the University of Ottawa School of International Development and Global Studies, said that while it may not be easy to conduct diplomacy with the Taliban, “it is absolutely essential.”
“Abandoning the Taliban at this stage, to me, is equivalent to abandoning the ordinary Afghans who have nobody to support them,” she said.
Banerjee worked at the Canadian embassy in Kabul for four years that overlapped with Sproule’s tenure as ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007.
Nipa Banerjee, a former staffer at the Canadian Embassy in Kabul, says the Canadian government and western allies should set clear benchmarks for the Taliban. (Toni Choueiri/CBC)
Banerjee said Canada could team up with allies in the international community to open a representative office in Afghanistan in order to have a presence on the ground — without committing to a full embassy.
She said such an office could fact-check Taliban claims that it is allowing girls to return to school and is not jailing political dissidents.
“Whether or not [the Taliban] are trustworthy is something that needs to be established and the government has to figure out how to establish that,” she said.
“I’m saying that fact-checking with goals, outcomes and indicators of outcomes, this can be done and we should work on that.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Wednesday that while he doesn’t support recognizing the Taliban government, he does support talks between Canada and the Taliban.
“Our goal as New Democrats is to make sure we get people that have put their lives at risk, that have supported our troops, we find a way to get them to safety,” Singh told a news conference.
“If that means having some meetings and having ongoing dialogue, then for the goal of securing the release and the safety of those who have put their lives at risk to support our troops, yes, we should do that.”
Singh added he also wants to see the Canadian government put pressure on the Taliban to respect human rights in Afghanistan.
GAC’s departmental statement to CBC News suggested it has little basis to believe the Taliban’s claims. It noted “the human rights situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate severely, especially with regard to secondary education for girls,” and it is “deeply concerned about reports of extrajudicial punishments … such as reprisals and summary executions, disappearances and detentions.”
Canada has allocated more than $143 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and the region this year.
Former foreign affairs minister Marc Garneau appointed Sproule as senior official for Afghanistan during the last Canadian federal election. He made the announcement on Twitter on Aug. 27, 2021.
TORONTO – Will Taylor Swift bring chaos or do we all need to calm down?
It’s a question many Torontonians are asking this week as the city braces for the massive fan base of one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
Hundreds of thousands of Swifties are expected to descend on downtown core for the singer’s six concerts which kick off Thursday at the Rogers Centre and run until Nov. 23.
And while their arrival will be a boon to tourism dollars, it could further clog the city’s already gridlocked streets.
Swift’s shows collide with other scheduled events at the nearby Scotiabank Arena, including a Toronto Raptors game on Friday and a Toronto Maple Leafs game on Saturday.
Some locals have already adjusted their plans to avoid the area.
Aahil Dayani says he and some friends intended to throw a birthday bash for one of their pals, until they realized it would overlap with the concerts.
“Ultimately, everybody agreed they just didn’t want to deal with that,” he said.
“Something as simple as getting together and having dinner is now thrown out the window.”
Dayani says the group rescheduled the birthday party for after Swift leaves town. In the meantime, he plans to hunker down at his Toronto residence.
“Her coming into town has kind of changed up my social life,” he added.
“We’re pretty much just not doing anything.”
Max Sinclair, chief executive and founder of A.I. technology firm Ecomtent, has suggested his employees stay away from the company’s downtown offices on concert days, since he doesn’t see the point in forcing people to endure potential traffic jams.
“It’s going to be less productive for us, and it’s going to be just a pain for everyone, so it’s easier to avoid it,” he said.
“We’re a hybrid company, so we can be flexible. It just makes sense.”
Toronto Transit Commission spokesperson Stuart Green says the public agency has been preparing for over a year to ease the pressure of so many Swifties in one confined area.
Dozens of buses and streetcars have been added to the transit routes around the stadium, while the TTC has consulted with the city on how to handle potential emergency scenarios.
“There may be some who will say we’re over-preparing, and that’s fair,” Green said.
“But we know based on what’s happened in other places, better to be over-prepared than under-prepared.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Electronic Arts has incorporated the Professional Women’s Hockey League into its NHL 25 video game.
The six teams starting their second seasons Nov. 30 will be represented in “play now,” “online versus,” “shootout” and “season” modes, plus a championship Walter Cup, in the updated game scheduled for release Dec. 5, the PWHL and EA Sports announced Wednesday.
Gamers can create a virtual PWHL player.
The league and video game company have agreed to a multi-year partnership, the PWHL stated.
“Our partnership with EA SPORTS opens new doors to elevate women’s hockey across all levels,” said PWHL operations senior vice-president Amy Scheer in a statement.
“Through this alliance, we’ll develop in-game and out-of-game experiences that strengthen the bond between our teams, players, and fans, bringing the PWHL closer to the global hockey community.”
NHL 22 featured playable women’s teams for the first time through an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation.
Toronto Sceptres forward Sarah Nurse became the first woman to appear on the video game’s cover in 2023 alongside Anaheim Ducks centre Trevor Zegras.
The Ottawa Charge, Montreal Victoire, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens round out the PWHL. The league announced team names and logos in September, and unveiled jerseys earlier this month.
“It is so meaningful that young girls will be able to see themselves in the game,” said Frost forward Taylor Heise, who grew up playing EA’s NHL games.
“It is a big milestone for inclusivity within the hockey community and shows that women’s prominence in hockey only continues to grow.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
Maple Leaf Foods Inc. continued to navigate weaker consumer demand in the third quarter as it looked ahead to the spinoff of its pork business in 2025.
“This environment has a particularly significant impact on a premium portfolio like ours and I want you to know that we are not sitting still waiting for the macro environment to recover on its own,” said CEO Curtis Frank on a call with analysts.
Frank said the company is working to adapt its strategies to consumer demand. As inflation has stabilized and interest rates decline, he said pressure on consumers is expected to ease.
Maple Leaf reported a third-quarter profit of $17.7 million compared with a loss of $4.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company says the profit amounted to 14 cents per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a loss of four cents per share a year earlier. Sales for the quarter totalled $1.26 billion, up from $1.24 billion a year ago.
“At a strategic level … we’re certainly seeing the transitory impacts of an inflation-stressed consumer environment play through our business,” Frank said.
“We are seeing more trade-down than we would like. And we are making more investments to grow our volume and protect our market share than we would like in the moment. But again, we believe that those impacts will prove to be transitory as they have been over the course of history.”
Financial results are improving in the segment as feed costs have stabilized, said Dennis Organ, president, pork complex.
Maple Leaf, which is working to spin off its pork business into a new, publicly traded company to be called Canada Packers Inc. and led by Organ, also said it has identified a way to implement the plan through a tax-free “butterfly reorganization.”
Frank said Wednesday that the new structure will see Maple Leaf retain slightly lower ownership than previously intended.
The company said it continues to expect to complete the transaction next year. However, the spinoff under the new structure is subject to an advance tax ruling from the Canada Revenue Agency and will take longer than first anticipated.
Maple Leaf announced the spinoff in July with a plan to become a more focused consumer packaged goods company, including its Maple Leaf and Schneiders brands.
“The prospect of executing the transaction as a tax-free spin-off is a positive development as we continue to advance our strategy to unlock value and unleash the potential of these two unique and distinct businesses,” Frank said in the news release.
He also said that Maple Leaf is set on delivering profitability for its plant protein business in mid-2025.
“This includes the recent completion of a procurement project aimed at leveraging our purchasing scale,” he said.
On an adjusted basis, Maple Leaf says it earned 18 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 13 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
The results were largely in line with expectations, said RBC analyst Irene Nattel in a note.
Maple Leaf shares were down 4.5 per cent in midday trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange at $21.49.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.
