2 December 2024
This December marks a vulnerable point in Canada’s recent history and a point that many have not taken note of. It also hits hard for our most recent veterans and a history that has not been fully understood by our generation and the new generation coming up. The US pullout from Afghanistan occurred only a few years ago, but the ghost of that deployment exists for many after two decades of combat for our allies. This month, Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) and Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Ombudsman’s Office are making a last-ditch attempt to urge the government to provide care for the Language and Cultural Advisors (LCAs). However, once their employment ended, their scars were forgotten and ignored by the Canadian government.
When American and NATO members deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11, our troops were deployed in a foreign land, its people spoke a foreign language and a foreign culture that was split along tribal and ethnic lines. These people had endured decades of war from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the civil war that followed and led to years of Taliban rule. The initial mission was to dismantle, degrade and destroy al-Qaeda and its Taliban ally and then the mission evolved into nation-building.
America, and then under the NATO banner of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) sought allies that would provide language translation and advice on how to traverse Afghanistan’s complex tribal networks. These Language and Cultural Advisors (LCAs) were essential in daily operations for the CAF, the American Forces and ISAF. LCAs were the frontline for operations in Afghanistan. They weren’t supposed to be. The LCAs were Canadians with Afghan or regional backgrounds who were originally employed to work on base.
Their role quickly changed from the initial plan that LCAs would operate out of Kandahar airbase. Due to the changing nature of the Afghan theatre and the counterinsurgency operations against the remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taliban – these LCAs were needed on the front lines, outside the wire and operated alongside Canadian troops – in Forward Operating Bases (FOBs), on patrols in villages and convoys amongst ambushes and roadside Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). They bore the brunt of extended combat operations after witnessing the effects of decades of war and strife since their upbringing and now had frontline seats in combat operations against the formidable al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgency.
The DND deemed LCAs as “term employees,” which ultimately meant that they did not garner the same compensation as Canadian Forces staff. Because LCAs were term contractors, they were not rotated on a schedule as CAF members, and many operated continuously for two years. Once their contract was concluded, LCAs were not eligible for the same benefits as CAF members. They were Afghan civilians fighting for the Afghan people, and the operation was going to be a success. The initial thought was that they were operating in their home country and would not need extra care from the Canadian government as when we would pull out there would be a functioning and secure democratically-elected Afghan government which would be able to fight off the degraded and dismantled Taliban remnants.
The Canadian government implemented programs and services to support members of the CAF who sustained mental and physical injuries. However, the LCAs were term employees, their classification rendered them unable to receive extended benefits when it came to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or the other wounds they received. After moving to Canada, and dealing with the geographic and cultural upheaval, many were told that they had only six months to report any PTSD and apply for compensation. PTSD is a trauma that could potentially take months or years to fully be apparent under normal circumstances. Sometimes it can be brought on by extraordinary circumstances. Moreover, just the act of moving to a different country, and leaving your loved ones in a deteriorating situation where the Taliban eventually would impose their strict rule.
After several complaints to DND, the Canadian government sent the LCA issue to the Workers Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) of Ontario. The adjudications made by the WSIB were not satisfactory, mainly because the WSIB was not equipped to deal with employees who were in combat zones. It was a difficult mandate for a provincial workers safety board to adjudicate over for obvious reasons.
The DND/CAF Ombudsman took the issue up with DND and it was resolved through legal counsel, however, that was one case and not a systematic solution. Only a handful of LCAs were able to receive benefits from the WSIB, but only after many appeals. Gregory Lick, the Ombudsman at the time, wrote to Defence Minister Bill Blair about this in September 2023. Lick illustrated that fifteen former LCAs had contacted his office since July 2023 concerning ongoing issues and the letter to the minister is dated September of that year. Thus signifying that no lasting policy issue ever came to fruition. Once again, it was another bandaid policy solution.
This is not a new issue, nor is it an issue that Ombudsman Gregory Lick took up recently before his departure. Lick first corresponded with the Department of National Defence (DND) in 2019 about this matter. The LCA issue got to the point that Lick, the Ombudsman, offered a policy solution to the Minister of National Defence. Before, Lick urged the minister to take the matter up with the assistant defence minister of human resources (civilian) (ADM HR Civ). Lick pointed to a case of the 1974 Grenade Explosion at CFB Valcartier where six cadets were killed and fifty-one injured after one of the cadets pulled the pin of an active grenade during an instruction. Compensation was given to these cadets and the personnel involved, but only after a new inquiry was authorized in 2014 and the investigation’s report was released in 2015. We can only hope that the LCA issue will not take forty years to be rectified. Again, these are Canadian citizens. The Interim Ombud for the DND and the CAF, Robyn Hynes, took office on 2 July 2024. The issue of compensation and access to treatment for the LCAs was again, repeated in August 2024.
That is where we stand now. The Ombudsman Office is releasing a report this month to urge the government to do something for a cadre of people who fought for a revitalized country that never came to fruition and fled to a new country, and new culture while knowing that their friends and relatives were being prosecuted under a vengeful Taliban and its jihadist allies. It is a conflict that will never end for them and we must not forget that as a nation.
This report could be the last sustained effort by the Ombudsman’s office for this cause. It is a fight that they have fought valiantly for years and with no meaningful success won. These LCAs bore the brunt of being in the thick of it with ambushes, and IED attacks far from what they originally signed up for in Canada.
The Canadian government needs to pay their due respect and provide the LCAs with the assistance they need as they provided it to our troops and the NATO mission as a whole as civilian contractors.
Featured Image: “Afghans board buses at Lester B. Pearson Airport, c. 2021”, Canadian Combat Camera, 2024