But it’s clear O’Toole was going to bat for Afghan interpreters who helped Canada long before the issue hit the headlines
Despite their professed commitment to human rights in general and the cause of refugees in particular, the Trudeau government took no special effort to relocate more Afghans who had helped Canada since coming to power in 2015, preferring instead to increase the general intake of refugees.
Indeed, O’Toole, a former Veteran Affairs minister, interceded with successive immigration ministers to try to help bring some of the Afghan interpreters to a new life in Canada. For instance, in January 2016, then immigration minister John McCallum facilitated the relocation to Canada of Afghan interpreter James Akam, after O’Toole brought his plight to McCallum’s attention.
Others, however, have not been so lucky. In April 2017, O’Toole again intervened with new immigration minister Ahmed Hussen, on behalf of another interpreter trying to get out of Afghanistan, Karim Amiry. Rather than McCallum’s hands on approach, he was rebuffed with a boiler plate letter from Hussen saying he couldn’t do anything to help.
Red T, for example, is a New York based organization working for translators around the world, and their president Maya Hess, wrote to Hussen in 2018 requesting a meeting to make the case for interpreters in Afghanistan who helped Canadian forces. He did not reply to her letter. Ironically, Amiry finally, after a four-year wait, arrived in Canada a week ago on a chartered flight under the current relocation program. But many others like him remain trapped in Afghanistan.
The Trudeau government has shown remarkably little foresight in planning and preparing for what was sure to be a train wreck in Afghanistan once the Americans pulled out. We’ve had a lot of fine rhetoric from the prime minister in the last few days since the fall of Kabul, but it’s clear O’Toole was going to bat for Afghan interpreters who helped Canada long before the issue hit the headlines.
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