Guest Host of On Point Arlene Bynon speaks with Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow Richard Shimooka on the still-degrading situation in Afghanistan now that US forces have completely withdrawn. There are still over 1,200 Canadians left in Afghanistan, and many more interpreters.
They discuss Canada accepting assurances from the Taliban that any who wish to leave will be able to, the new agreement with the US to take 5,000 US rescued Afghans as refugees in Canada, and what can still be done to get our people out.
According to Shimooka, the 1,200 who were left behind “does not take into account the large number of people who worked with Canadian government [over nearly] 20 years of involvement in a country.”
“These people bought into the promise that we sold them, a freer more just society, the opposite of what the Taliban was before… and they’ve been completely abandoned – literally abandoned,” says Shimooka. “It’s horrifying. As someone who has studied and worked in foreign policy for decades, it’s utterly heart-wrenching.”
