Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Minister Harjit Sajjan listens during a funding announcement in Vancouver, on July 3.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Former defence minister Harjit Sajjan acknowledged the head of a Canadian Sikh charity called him directly to ask for special forces to rescue a group of Afghan Sikhs after the Taliban takeover in August, 2021.
But Mr. Sajjan, now Emergency Preparedness Minister, told a parliamentary committee Tuesday he did not give the Afghan Sikhs special treatment. He said he acted out of humanitarian concern when Tarjinder Bhullar, director of the Calgary-based Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation, called his personal phone number.
The Globe and Mail has reported that military sources believe the diversion of special forces undermined the mission of getting Canadians out on final evacuation flights.
“Basically anyone who had my number was calling me at that time and just like with any information that was provided to me, I had the responsibility to forward the information,” Mr. Sajjan told the national defence committee. “Imagine if I had received information and not pushed it forward.”
Mr. Sajjan was called to testify at the request of the Bloc Québécois after The Globe reported in June that he instructed the military to rescue about 225 Afghan Sikhs. Mr. Sajjan acknowledged in June that he directed Canadian Special Forces to evacuate the group but insisted it was not an order. He also confirmed he relayed information and other details about the Sikhs to the military as elite soldiers worked to meet up with the group near Kabul’s international airport.
The rescue mission failed when the Afghan Sikhs became frightened and left the rendezvous point before Canadian Special Forces arrived. The group later managed to get to India and many of them have since come to Canada.
Three military sources who were in Ottawa and on the ground in Kabul told The Globe that the Afghan Sikhs were not considered an operational priority because they had no link to Canada. Mr. Sajjan’s intervention, the military sources say, affected the rescue of Canadians and former Afghan interpreters on Canada’s priority list. The Globe did not identify the sources because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
At the committee Tuesday, Mr. Sajjan said his directive was in line with government policy to help vulnerable groups on the ground in Afghanistan, including Afghans of the Sikh faith.
“Just because I have the same religion, that wasn’t the reason why I made certain decisions here,” he said. “I wish we could have got all vulnerable populations out.”
When Kabul fell to the Taliban, Canada and its allies scrambled to evacuate their citizens, along with Afghan interpreters who had worked for Canada. Ottawa did have a third priority list that included groups at risk of persecution, including feminists, human-rights defenders, journalists and religious minorities.
The Taliban’s swift takeover came in the early weeks of a federal election campaign. Sikh Canadians were viewed as a key voting bloc for the governing Liberals in several ridings in the Greater Toronto Area and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.
