The Department of Foreign Affairs is keeping secret records detailing Canada’s hurried flight from Kabul in 2021, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. Records released under Access To Information were heavily censored. “Please limit distribution and do not share outside of the Government of Canada,” read one staff email.Staff in one memo confirmed Taliban terrorists confiscated diplomatic offices but would not “disclose further details due to security considerations.”“We are aware some of our diplomatic properties in Kabul had been breached by the Taliban after our full evacuation,” said the newly-released 2022 memo.“The Department of Foreign Affairs cannot disclose further details due to security considerations.” Canada was the first G7 country to close its embassy in Kabul on August 15, 2021 as the city fell to the Taliban. Reid Sirrs, Canada’s last ambassador to Afghanistan, was among 69 department staff to flee aboard a half-empty military plane.“It was quite close for us,” Sirrs testified at 2022 hearings of the Commons Special Committee on Afghanistan.“We could hear explosions. We could see fires all over the city. When we came into the military side of the airport itself it was very obvious the city was coming under siege and it became evident to us that a whole bunch of chaotic activity was taking place and was going to escalate.”“Why did Canada decide not to leave any representatives at the Kabul airport during the evacuation?” asked Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe at the time. “It was a very chaotic day,” replied Sirrs.“For us, when it came down to why not leave anybody behind, at the time it looked like the whole airport was going to be overrun. We saw a lot of military aircraft coming in, offloading equipment, offloading military personnel, and to us it just seemed to be far too dangerous for us to stay put and leave anybody in harm’s way.”Cabinet to date has not explained why it agreed to close the embassy knowing some 1,250 Canadian citizens and Afghan allies remained trapped in Kabul.“I wish we could have gotten more out,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan told MPs last November 5.Canadian military and Afghan aid groups had called the hurried closure an international embarrassment. “We were the first embassy to depart,” Major-General (Ret’d) Dean Milner, last Canadian combat commander in the region, testified at 2022 committee hearings. “That was very embarrassing.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs is keeping secret records detailing Canada’s hurried flight from Kabul in 2021, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. Records released under Access To Information were heavily censored. “Please limit distribution and do not share outside of the Government of Canada,” read one staff email.Staff in one memo confirmed Taliban terrorists confiscated diplomatic offices but would not “disclose further details due to security considerations.”“We are aware some of our diplomatic properties in Kabul had been breached by the Taliban after our full evacuation,” said the newly-released 2022 memo.“The Department of Foreign Affairs cannot disclose further details due to security considerations.” Canada was the first G7 country to close its embassy in Kabul on August 15, 2021 as the city fell to the Taliban. Reid Sirrs, Canada’s last ambassador to Afghanistan, was among 69 department staff to flee aboard a half-empty military plane.“It was quite close for us,” Sirrs testified at 2022 hearings of the Commons Special Committee on Afghanistan.“We could hear explosions. We could see fires all over the city. When we came into the military side of the airport itself it was very obvious the city was coming under siege and it became evident to us that a whole bunch of chaotic activity was taking place and was going to escalate.”“Why did Canada decide not to leave any representatives at the Kabul airport during the evacuation?” asked Bloc Québécois MP Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe at the time. “It was a very chaotic day,” replied Sirrs.“For us, when it came down to why not leave anybody behind, at the time it looked like the whole airport was going to be overrun. We saw a lot of military aircraft coming in, offloading equipment, offloading military personnel, and to us it just seemed to be far too dangerous for us to stay put and leave anybody in harm’s way.”Cabinet to date has not explained why it agreed to close the embassy knowing some 1,250 Canadian citizens and Afghan allies remained trapped in Kabul.“I wish we could have gotten more out,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Harjit Sajjan told MPs last November 5.Canadian military and Afghan aid groups had called the hurried closure an international embarrassment. “We were the first embassy to depart,” Major-General (Ret’d) Dean Milner, last Canadian combat commander in the region, testified at 2022 committee hearings. “That was very embarrassing.”
