The documents distributed to Afghans claim that each person named on them was ‘granted a VISA to enter Canada’, though internal review determined that the documents were inauthentic
. In the affidavit, she also acknowledged for the first time that she and her staff members were the ones who added the individual Afghans’ names to the documents.
In court documents, Maureen Silcoff and Sujit Choudhry, lawyers representing the Afghans, argue that Ms. McPhedran’s evidence shows that Global Affairs Canada “delegated to her authority to issue the letters.” In her affidavit, Ms. McPhedran said the complete list of 640 Afghans to whom her office had sent travel documents was submitted to senior staff in the immigration minister’s office in September, 2021. But by mid-September, Ms. McPhedran wrote, the government had said it “would not honour the Canadian facilitation visa letters.” In response to that news, she e-mailed senior government officials to express her dismay.
On Wednesday at the House of Commons immigration committee, which is considering launching an investigation into the matter, senior Immigration Department officials told MPs legitimate facilitation letters were sent only by the Immigration and Global Affairs departments, and that the purpose of the documents was to ensure people who had already been granted entry to Canada could get to the Kabul airport for their flights.
In a statement to The Globe, Ms. Robinson acknowledged that she worked with Ms. McPhedran to send the letters “to individuals at a time where their lives were in serious and imminent danger.” She did not address a question about whether she had permission to distribute the letters.
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