QUESTION PERIOD — Ministry of National Defence
Mission in Afghanistan
November 7, 2024
Minister, the city of Kabul fell into Taliban hands the same day the Prime Minister called an election in 2021. While our allies focused on evacuating their citizens, the Trudeau government was focused on a pointless election campaign.
The Globe and Mail reported that while Canadian citizens, permanent residents and Afghan interpreters who helped our soldiers waited to be rescued, your predecessor, Minister Sajjan, ordered our soldiers to evacuate another group that had no connection to Canada.
The former chief of the defence staff confirmed those statements, stating that the forces were following the minister’s “legal orders.”
Minister, this is a very serious matter. Has your government investigated? Did Minister Sajjan intervene to change the armed forces’ priorities during the evacuation of Kabul?
Thank you for the question. In fact, this matter was canvassed by our parliamentary Defence Committee only two days ago with the appearance of Minister Sajjan before that committee. These questions were put to him in that public forum. In that public forum, he testified as to his actual actions, not as you have characterized them, but the fact that he received an inquiry from an organization in Canada and that he had passed that inquiry on to the military, that he did not provide, as you’ve characterized it, any direction or order but simply passed on the request.
It was a very difficult time for the Canadian Armed Forces. I would like to acknowledge that about 3,500 people got out of Afghanistan as a direct result of the heroic actions of members of the Canadian Armed Forces for which I think we should all be grateful. We were also making an effort, like many other like‑minded countries were doing, to assist religious minors in those circumstances. The testimony, as I understand it, of Minister Sajjan before the parliamentary committee simply confirmed that was the sequence of events.
The Globe and Mail also reported on Minister Sajjan’s intervention, as follows:
The operation involved intense planning and it meant fewer soldiers were available to screen people awaiting the last flights out of Kabul.”
Minister, is it true that Minister Sajjan’s orders meant that fewer Canadian soldiers were able to help Canadian citizens escape Kabul?
Again, you’re referring to suggestions that apparently appeared in a newspaper for which I have not seen any evidence that they were, in fact, true.
I can share with you that Minister Sajjan did appear before committee two days ago. He testified as to his actual experience there. Again, the committee is perfectly capable of doing its work and asking and making inquiries. I hope that that would provide not only our parliamentarians but also Canadians with a much clearer picture of what actually transpired rather than the reports from anonymous sources —
