Harjit Sajjan, Canada’s minister of defence during the fall of Kabul in August, 2021, had a lot on his hands as the deadline for airlifting people out of Afghanistan at the end of that month rapidly approached.
His primary “duty and obligation,” as he said in a statement on Thursday, was to Canadians “and those with strong ties to Canada” – in other words, Afghans who had worked for the Canadian embassy, the armed forces or for journalists, often as translators and fixers.
By Aug. 26, when the last Canadian Armed Forces flight took off from the besieged Hamid Karzai Airport, Canada had airlifted about 3,700 people out of the grasp of the surrounding Taliban forces. They included Canadian citizens and permanent residents, citizens of allied countries, Afghan nationals who worked for Canada and other vulnerable Afghans.
In the chaos, Canada left behind 1,250 Canadian citizens and permanent residents, and their family members. Hundreds more Afghans who assisted the Canadian Army were left stranded.
And yet in the final days of the airlift, Mr. Sajjan instructed the Canadian Forces to mount a rescue operation for about 225 Afghan Sikhs hoping to get on one of Canada’s planes.
Mr. Sajjan insists he didn’t order the military to shift its priority from rescuing Canadians, Afghan interpreters and others who aided Canada during the 12 long years of the war in Afghanistan to rescuing a specific group of vulnerable Afghan nationals with no connection to Canada. But his explanation is beyond flimsy.
The principle of civilian control means that the government sets policy and priorities for Canada’s armed forces. It is absurd to think that an instruction from the minister to the military would be taken for anything other than an order. Lest there be any doubt, Chief of Defence Staff Wayne Eyre told The Canadian Press on Friday that the Forces were following “legal orders.”
The upshot, according to military sources who were in Ottawa and Kabul at the time, was that the resources that should have gone into getting priority targets to safety before the last Canadian plane left Kabul were shifted to a complex mission of lower importance, thrusting Canadian soldiers further into a turbulent and dangerous situation.
Among other things, it meant there were fewer Canadian soldiers available to screen people awaiting the last flights out of Kabul. “There was such furious anger that the last 24 hours were solely dedicated to getting the Sikhs out,” one source, a special forces officer, told The Globe.
Mr. Sajjan, who is now the Emergency Preparedness Minister, has vehemently defended his actions. He says that getting vulnerable groups – women, religious minorities, LGBTQ people – out of Kabul was a “priority” for Canada. He also says it was a particular policy of the government to help Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, thanks to its partnership with an Alberta-based non-governmental organization, the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation.
That NGO identified the 225 Afghan Sikhs and gave their names to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada officials in order to facilitate their travel to Canada. Mr. Sajjan, in his words, then “provided direction to the Canadian Armed Forces, through the appropriate chain of command, to assist the group of Afghan Sikhs.”
As the chaos at the Kabul airport intensified, he relayed messages from the NGO to the military about the Sikhs’ location and status. Commanders on the ground sent soldiers to meet them and escort them into the airport, but the group lost its nerve and left before their rescuers could arrive.
Mr. Sajjan, who is Sikh, says he “did not direct the Canadian Armed Forces to prioritize Sikhs above others.” That is a convenient misinterpretation.
Equally convenient is his accusation that racism underpins criticism of his actions. To be clear, Mr. Sajjan is not the victim here. The victims are those left behind in Afghanistan, in the hands of the murderous Taliban regime.
The Bloc Québécois says it will propose hearings on Mr. Sajjan’s actions when the Commons resumes sitting in the fall. Hearings could be helpful in clearing away Mr. Sajjan’s prevarications, but a few things are already crystal clear.
Mr. Sajjan’s actions hampered efforts to evacuate Canadians and people who risked their lives to help Canada, and who should have come before anyone else. It was his mission to get those people to safety. He compromised that mission.