Former Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan defended the attempted rescue mission of Sikhs during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying it was part of a government policy of evacuating vulnerable individuals to Canada that had been discussed months before the fall of Kabul.
Sajjan, who is currently minister of emergency preparedness, said during a Nov. 5 appearance before the Commons Defence Committee that the government had planned to evacuate “vulnerable communities” such as women leaders, journalists, LGBTQ2+ individuals, and persecuted religious minorities, “which included Sikhs and Hindus.”
An organization called the Manmeet Singh Bhullar Foundation reached out to Sajjan at the end of August about a group of more than 200 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus who had been approved by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for evacuation to Canada. He said he passed this information on to the chain of command….