A House of Commons committee is considering investigating unauthorized facilitation letters given to Afghans by Sen. Marilou McPhedran and her office, as well as the roles of other officials in disseminating the documents
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser told MPs Wednesday he has “serious concerns” that Afghans desperate to flee the Taliban were misled when they were sent inauthentic Canadian travel documents, leaving them with the mistaken belief that they had been cleared to come to Canada.
He said it’s possible that a “few hundred people” received the unauthorized letters, but that his department is unable to verify just how widespread the issue was. Mr. Fraser was responding to questions about Ms. McPhedran’s actions, but never specifically named her. Ms. McPhedran said she couldn’t disclose who gave her the letters, and she repeatedly declined to explain whether she was sent a template, or whether someone had sent her documents with the names of people already added to them.
Ms. Monsef, who is no longer an MP, also did not reply to requests for comment on Wednesday. Ms. McPhedran told the Senate there was a “small circle of high officials into which I had been invited by Minister Monsef.” Some of the Afghans who received the inauthentic letters are family members of one of Ms. Rempel Garner’s constituents. She told the committee the Afghans were left stranded for more than a year because of the letters. And she said that even though they qualified for resettlement in Canada, the federal government refused to grant them entry. Ultimately, she said, the U.S. government got the family to safety.
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