Afghan-Canadian combat advisers launch discrimination suit against Department of National Defence
The Toronto Star and CBC News report this week on our new lawsuit on behalf of 31 former Afghan-Canadian Language and Cultural Advisors (LCAs) who were employed by the Department of National Defence (DND) during the war in Afghanistan.
LCAs were recruited because of their knowledge of Afghan languages and cultures and were ostensibly hired to provide language interpretation on military bases. In reality, they were deployed alongside soldiers to dangerous conditions in active conflict zones. LCAs endured hazards including gunfire and rocket fire, interrogated detainees, received death threats from the Taliban, and witnessed scenes of injury and death. Many later developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other injuries as a result of their service.
Canada eventually referred LCAs to the Ontario Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), which is ill-suited for the needs of returning veterans and has failed to provide meaningful benefits to most LCAs. The DND’s Ombudsman Office has repeatedly called on Canada to provide LCAs with suitable recognition, financial compensation, and care outside of the WSIB system.
The claim alleges that Canada breached the rights of the plaintiffs, all former LCAs, under sections 7 and 15 the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canada failed to adequately train or prepare LCAs for deployment in a warzone, to limit consecutive deployments, and to provide post-deployment support and benefits. LCAs were singled out by Canada based on their national and ethnic origin, and treated like soldiers in the battlefield, then denied the benefits and supports that Canada provides to soldiers and veterans in recognition of the scars of combat. The claim seeks $50 million in Charter damages on behalf of 31 former LCAs.
The Canadian government hired several dozen citizens of Afghan descent as LCAs during the mission. Most received military accolades that underscored the critical role they played. The dangerous work left many with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and some with physical injuries, according to an investigation by the military ombudsman.
But after returning home, the former LCAs did not get the same medical or financial benefits as the soldiers they had worked alongside, despite having faced the same risks. Instead, the Canadian government treated them like contract workers with desk jobs in Ottawa, and advised them to seek help from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), which initially denied most of their claims.
For the past decade they have been fighting for medical care and financial support along with public recognition of their critical role. Through it all, the government has insisted WSIB is adequate even as the military’s own ombudsman deemed it insufficient and called on leaders to do more.
Fed up, 31 former advisers are now suing the federal government, alleging Canada has subjected them to mental, physical and financial hardship that amounts to discrimination under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Known by the acronym LCAs, the advisers were tasked with helping commanders and troops overcome language and cultural barriers. But they also conducted dangerous intelligence gathering on the Taliban, warned of attacks and eavesdropped on insurgent communications.
They were civilians, not soldiers.
Many of them returned to Canada injured and broken, only to be denied care by the federal government because their contracts with the Defence Department ended after their time overseas and their health concerns, including post-traumatic stress disorder, emerged afterward.
“After years of dedicated service to their country, LCAs were abandoned in the community,” said the court filing, which noted that many of them had secret clearance and could not discuss the operations in which they had been involved.
The crux of the discrimination claim is that the advisers “were recruited based on their identities as Muslim Canadians of Afghan descent and were subjected to the same risks and hazards” as soldiers, yet, “Canada deprived LCAs of the same benefits and supports it provides to soldiers in recognition of these risks and hazards of war.”
Read the statement of claim here.
Lawyers
Emma Phillips, Louis Century, Erin Sobat