Workplace safety board revisiting decision to withhold benefits from Afghan military interpreters
CBC
After initially telling former language and cultural advisers who worked alongside the Canadian military during the Afghan war that they do not qualify for post-traumatic stress benefits, the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) agreed Thursday to take a second look at the cases of at least six men.
The advisers performed some of the most dangerous and dirty work of the war. They acted as the Canadian Army's eyes and ears, sometimes going covertly into Taliban-controlled villages to gather information. They translated, eavesdropped on insurgent radio communications and guided commanders through the complicated cultural nuances of the war-ravaged province of Kandahar.
They are Canadian citizens of Afghan origin, specifically recruited by the army. As civilian contractors who worked for the Department of National Defence (DND), they were not entitled to veterans benefits.
When more than two dozen of them returned to Canada — some after serving more time overseas than most Canadian soldiers — their service and their injuries were overlooked.
After CBC News did a series of stories in 2019 about their plight and the Canadian Forces ombudsman took up their cause, DND shuffled them to the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB).
Over the past year, the WSIB has denied their benefits claims one by one, with case workers overruling the assessments of psychiatrists and social workers.
"It was the real face of bureaucracy," said Bashir Jamalzadah, the former cultural adviser to Col. Ian Hope, the first battle group commander for Canada's renewed Kandahar deployment in 2006.
"The real face of bureaucracy is too much bureaucracy and it's killing us."
When he signed up almost two decades ago, Jamalzadah said, he was assured he would be taken care of by the government should anything happen to him.
"I was expecting that this country will treat me as a citizen and will deal with me as a citizen, and take care of me as a citizen," said Jamalzadah, who cited Canada's abysmal treatment of Indigenous soldiers who fought in the two world wars.
"This is not the first time that the Canadian government is doing this. Basically, if we were not people of a different colour and a different ethnicity, it would have been great."
CBC News asked both DND and the WSIB for comment. In response, the workplace injury board abruptly changed course.
Jeffery Lang, president and chief executive of the WSIB, said in a media statement that the files of Afghan language and cultural advisers who were denied benefits will now get a second look.
"The work people do on behalf of Canada in war torn countries is incredibly courageous and we should all be deeply grateful," he said.