44th Parl. 1st Sess.
December 7, 2021 10:00AM
- Dec/7/21 11:25:40 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, the failures in Afghanistan are not anything new, especially when it comes to religious minorities and minority groups like the LGBTQ community. As someone who has personally sponsored a refugee family from Afghanistan, I know first-hand that it took the Liberal government four years to get that family here when they were under persecution.
I want to correct the member, but this is not to denigrate the civil service at all. It is to hold the government to account for its failures. I went through that process and have seen it, and the Liberals continually fail. We are at 1.8 million cases in immigration backlogs. It is not the fact that the public service has failed; it is the government's failure for creating this bureaucratic mess. We have all seen images of the young women and girls who are being forcibly converted and married. What is going on is devastating.
Let me be very clear. The Conservative Party does not want to destroy the refugee class in any way. Actually, we want to make it better because of the bureaucratic backlogs the Liberal government created—
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- Dec/7/21 1:36:47 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is my first time rising in this Parliament, so I would like to thank all of the wonderful people of Calgary Forest Lawn for putting their trust in me and sending me to this wonderful place to be their voice. I am thankful for all of the support from my family and everyone else who got me here.
I rise today in support of this important motion. The fall of Afghanistan was tragic, and the tragedy is still unfolding today. The U.S. made no secret of their troops' withdrawal. It was only a matter of time before the Taliban would advance through the country once American soldiers were out of the way.
When the U.S. made that announcement, veterans, NGOs and experts warned governments around the world that Afghan interpreters, support staff and their families were in urgent need, yet at the time that Kabul fell, Canada had no active plan to respond to the deteriorating situation.
The government conveniently hid behind the excuse of national security while our NATO allies were launching full-scale evacuation operations to get their citizens, and Afghans who had supported them, out of the conflict zone.
It has been about four months since Kabul fell, and we finally saw the first plane of privately sponsored refugees come to Canada last week. After almost 120 days, the government has yet to put a plan or a timeline in place for fulfilling its promise to resettle 40,000 Afghan refugees. The government has had months to prepare, months since the U.S. began its withdrawal and months since the Taliban took over the country. To say the situation in Afghanistan is dire would be an understatement. There are increasing food shortages, little to no access to money, and travel outside the country is severely limited.
The Taliban is actively hunting anyone who supported NATO and Canadian forces. The regime is arresting religious minorities, including Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, Hazaras and Ahmadiyya Muslims, and charging them with blasphemy, putting their innocent lives at risk and, in some cases, resulting in death. Women's rights leaders, LGBTQ people, pro-democracy activists and anyone who dares to speak out against the Taliban are harassed, tortured and killed. Vulnerable Afghans are stranded in Afghanistan, watching their friends, family and neighbours arbitrarily arrested or summarily shot in the street.
In the middle of the Taliban takeover, the Prime Minister called an unnecessary and unwarranted election. He dissolved Parliament and with it, any accountability his government would have had to face. Whenever we ask the minister of immigration what his government is going to do to address this disaster, he has said that it is complicated, that they did not have enough information and that they are working on it.
Do members know what is hard? Hard is when a person has to hide in the country they fought for, knowing they are on a list and being hunted by a regime with historical ties to some of the most horrific terrorists in history. Hard is living in a country without money or food, unable to feed one's family, practice one's religion or speak one's mind. That is hard.
The government had months to plan for, and now months to evacuate, those who served alongside our forces and in our embassy. Now it makes excuses and talks about a big commitment to settle 40,000 refugees in Canada. Like other Liberal promises, this one will surely be left behind, just as the government left people stranded at the airport.
The situation has only become more urgent after the data breach at IRCC, which released hundreds of Afghan refugees' personal information. When I wrote to the privacy commissioner calling for an investigation, I knew that the government would do nothing about this. I welcome the privacy commissioner's investigation into this life-threatening data breach, and I hope changes are made by the government to prevent further leaks of sensitive data. This incident, along with the government's inaction, gives me no confidence that the Prime Minister or his cabinet will do anything.
There seems to be a lack of urgency coming from the Liberals. It is sad. Afghan refugees feel abandoned. They have been stranded in a country with a regime that is hunting them. My inbox is flooded daily with emails from Afghan interpreters and other vulnerable people desperate for help. They are pleading for someone to do anything to help them. Their calls and emails to IRCC go unanswered. They cannot even get an acknowledgement from the department on whether their case is even being processed or not. It is all well and good for the minister to state that they are in the process, but those families have been left completely in the dark, just like the tens of thousands of individuals stuck in the government's massive backlog of applicants.
It is not just those stranded in Afghanistan. This fall, I met with former Afghan interpreters who were resettled in Canada by the previous Conservative government. Now that the Taliban is back in control, they are trying to get their families out and into Canada as soon as possible. They told me stories of how their families were in more danger now than ever. However, IRCC is dragging its feet, leaving these people in the dark.
When the Afghan government fell, there was no time for the public servants to destroy sensitive documents, so the Taliban now has all the information on anyone who served with the International Security Assistance Force, the Afghan military and Canadian Armed Forces. The interpreters, proud of their service in the war, had shared photos and stories on social media. The Taliban took that information too.
Since the Taliban began retaking Afghanistan, they have used any information they can get their hands on to find, target, arrest, torture and kill anyone who served with us and our allies in the war. If the Taliban cannot find the interpreters or support staff, they target their families.
The Taliban send the interpreters messages and emails threatening their families, their parents, siblings, spouses and children. When they realize that the interpreter is in Canada, they begin killing the interpreter’s family members. The government’s answer to this desperate situation is to offer to prioritize family sponsorship applications, the same applications that are in massive backlogs and that were not being processed throughout the pandemic.
I have personally experienced first-hand the inaction and bureaucratic disaster of the Liberal government. In 2015, I helped to sponsor an Afghan family to come to Canada. The family members are religious minorities who were persecuted by the very people who now control Afghanistan.
Before I continue, Mr. Speaker, I would like to mention I will be splitting my time with the member for Elgin—Middlesex—London.
My older brother, the late Manmeet Singh Bhullar, started an amazing initiative to bring those persecuted Sikhs and Hindus refugees over here. It took four years for the Liberal government to bring those who were heavily persecuted to Canada. This included young women and girls who were being targeted as they walked to school. They were being forced into conversion and forced marriages, and the civil government sat around for four years.
We see the same thing today. It is all due to the bureaucratic, Liberal-made backlog that is causing so many families harm. In this case, it is costing lives. Today, 1.8 million applications are backlogged, waiting to be processed. Families are behind those backlogs. It is hurting families and costing lives.
Let us think of the refugees who are ignored by the government and are left hoping for private sponsorship. If the private sponsorship only happens every few years during an election year, how can anyone say the government is not abandoning these refugees?
I want to take this opportunity to thank all the veterans and active-duty soldiers in Canada, first for their service and second for their tireless efforts in trying to get Afghan interpreters and their families over to Canada after the Taliban took over. It is because of them, other Canadians and people around the world that Afghan refugees are getting out.
These brave veterans have partnered with NGOs to fill the void left by the government. That first plane of Afghan refugees who finally made it to Canada was only possible because of veterans and private citizens who took the initiative and acted. That is why we need to pass this motion to finally get to the bottom of the disaster that has unfolded in Afghanistan and to not let our soldiers’ sacrifice be in vain.
We need to finally act and evacuate those Afghan refugees abandoned by the government. Families of people still stuck in Afghanistan tell me that they live in constant fear, afraid every time the phone rings. They are afraid that it will be the call telling them their loved ones have been killed by the Taliban.
Enough is enough. We must pass this motion to hold the government to account and get to the bottom of its failures. We are a country that prides itself on being peacekeepers, defenders of democracy and a land of opportunity. Now is our opportunity to do the right thing.
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- Dec/7/21 1:46:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what is political is the fact that when Kabul was falling, that member's boss, the Prime Minister, called an election and abandoned any responsibility to those who served our country. That was political. The failed $650 million election was selfish and an expensive cabinet shuffle. These are the words of those who served our country. They deserve this investigation to find out what happened. Why were they abandoned? That is why we brought this motion forward.
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- Dec/7/21 1:48:31 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I agree with that. We owe a sense of duty to those who serve our country and we owe it to them to know what exactly happened. When they did everything they could to serve our country, why were they abandoned? Our country was supposed to serve them.
That is the heart of this motion. We want to strike a committee for those people. It is for the veterans and the NGOs that had to step up when their government failed to so. They want answers. The people who have been abandoned want answers. This is not about politics. I hope the NDP will join us in supporting the motion so we can get to the bottom of this.
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- Dec/7/21 1:50:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for his advocacy.
We as the Conservative Party put forward in our platform that we would help those refugees who had been persecuted. I have been through the process of trying to resettle a family from Afghanistan through private sponsorship. Again, it was the Liberal-made backlogs and bureaucracy that stopped this from happening. We recognized this in our platform and we wanted to speed up those refugee applications. We want to put more emphasis on private sponsorship, because we have seen the government-led programs and they are even worse. The backlog is costing lives, which is why we proposed that in our election platform.
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- Dec/7/21 2:38:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, those who served alongside Canadians in Afghanistan deserve better than being “left on read” by the government. The Prime Minister avoided accountability and abandoned those who served Canada by calling a selfish election. Veterans, Canadians and Afghan interpreters want to know why the Liberal government failed them so badly.
Will the minister commit to voting in favour of today's opposition motion so Afghan interpreters and support staff know why they were abandoned, and to make sure this failure never happens again?
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- Dec/7/21 2:40:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is such a priority that an election needed to be called.
The minister loves to say that 4,000 Afghan refugees have come to Canada. Only a Liberal would pat themselves on the back for meeting only 10% of their promises without any timeline or plan to complete the rest. It seems like only privately sponsored Afghan refugees have been arriving recently. Veterans, charities and NGOs have been picking up the massive slack left by the government.
On what date will the remaining 90% of Afghan refugees be brought to Canada?
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- Dec/7/21 3:50:11 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, the member talked about politicizing things, but it is funny that she did not talk about a political election being called, abandoning those who served this country and their families.
I have a very simple question, since the member brought up an exit strategy. Was the exit strategy to call an election, abandoning those who served Canada and avoiding any accountability?
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- Dec/7/21 4:07:45 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his continued advocacy, especially when it comes to refugees.
We have both had experience going through the first group of Afghans who came to Canada: the Sikhs and the Hindus. People who sponsored one of those families, as I did, saw the bureaucratic backlog and what it did. Right now there is a backlog of 1.8 million that is stopping families from being reunited and from bringing those refugees to Canada. It goes to show that our NGOs and our veterans are the ones who stepped up when the government failed to serve those who served this country.
I want to give my hon. colleague a little more time to talk about our older brother, the one we miss so dearly and who many in the House looked to as a mentor: Manmeet Singh Bhullar.
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- Dec/7/21 6:35:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I have been asking the government what the plan is to evacuate the 40,000 Afghan refugees to Canada. We have yet to hear a real response. I see in the supplementary estimates that the government is looking to fund resettling Afghan nationals in Canada.
I will ask again: Now that the government is asking for funding, what is the plan to bring the remaining Afghan refugees to Canada?
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- Dec/7/21 6:36:53 p.m.
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Madam Chair, respectfully, that is only 10.5% of the total that the Liberals are supposed to resettle.
Former embassy workers, Afghan interpreters and other support staff who have applied to the special immigration program have only received auto replies. The government has highlighted improving IRCC client services as a priority.
Does the minister believe that sending auto replies to Afghan refugees, who are waiting months for any reply at all, counts as improving client services?
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- Dec/7/21 6:37:51 p.m.
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Madam Chair, seeing as an auto reply does not count as good service, how is the government going to improve its communications with those Afghan refugees who have not received any information since August?
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- Dec/7/21 6:38:28 p.m.
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Madam Chair, many religious minority groups, women rights leaders and members of the LGBTQ community are stranded in Afghanistan and have no way out. Many have sought shelter in safe houses, but the safe houses have run out of funding from private sources.
Will the government be providing assistance in Afghanistan to the safe houses that are protecting many vulnerable refugees?
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- Dec/7/21 6:39:12 p.m.
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Madam Chair, last month, there was a data breach at IRCC, which saw the personal information of hundreds of Afghan refugees leaked. This breach threatens the lives of refugees. While the Privacy Commissioner is now investigating it, the government has not outlined how it is strengthening cybersecurity and privacy protections.
How are refugees in Afghanistan or any vulnerable persons abroad able to trust the government with their data?
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- Dec/7/21 6:40:05 p.m.
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Madam Chair, Canada heard from CSIS and our allies, long before the U.S. completed its troop withdrawal, that the Taliban would take over. They all knew what that would mean.
How many Afghan interpreters applied for refugee status before Kabul fell?
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- Dec/7/21 6:40:39 p.m.
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Madam Chair, again, how many Afghan interpreters have settled since Kabul fell?
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- Dec/7/21 6:41:02 p.m.
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Madam Chair, in my home province of Alberta, the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline extension is devastating to thousands of oil and gas workers. The KXL project was going to employ thousands of indigenous and union workers, and now other pipelines are at the mercy of President Biden.
What is the government doing to stand up to the Democrats and protect our vital energy projects?
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- Dec/7/21 6:41:44 p.m.
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Madam Chair, it is clear the Prime Minister's relationship with the U.S. government is souring. It is hurting cross-border business and threatening Canadian jobs. While the supply chain crisis in the United States continues to cause delays for goods being shipped across North America, the IRCC and the U.S. State Department are dragging their feet on processing the visas for truckers. This is directly impacting a lot of my constituents.
What is the government doing to fix the backlogs affecting truckers?
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- Dec/7/21 6:42:36 p.m.
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Madam Chair, the government has not put a plan in place to address backlogs. There is a backlog of 1.8 million immigration applications in Canada. Now the wait time for truckers to get U.S. visas is going beyond 12 months.
What is the government doing to work with the U.S. to speed up the process for essential work visas, such as those needed for truckers?
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- Dec/7/21 6:43:23 p.m.
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Madam Chair, will all 40,000 of those refugees be brought into Canada?
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