THUNDER BAY — Since he was first elected in 2019, Marcus Powlowski has advocated on behalf of Afghans seeking to escape the Taliban regime and find safety in Canada.
Now the focus of the member of parliament for Thunder Bay-Rainy River is on female Afghan politicians, whose plight came to the forefront on the weekend with the murder of former parliamentarian Mursal Nabizada.
She was shot and killed by gunmen in her Kabul home, in the first reported slaying in the capital of a lawmaker from the previous administration since the Taliban took power.
Nabizada is said to be among just a handful of women MPs who stayed in the capital after the Taliban seized control in August 2021.
Powlowski said he's had direct contact with some of them, and he believes most have now decided it would be better to leave the country with their loved ones.
"I know a number of them have been picked up and questioned, and/or tortured by the police," he said. "Not only do they fear for themselves but they fear for their families."
In a joint statement, the Liberal MP and an all-party group that includes five other MPs have called on the federal government to move swiftly to extricate the eight female politicians still trapped in Afghanistan.
"Their brutal gender apartheid system now controls every aspect of life for all women and girls. No female is safe. But this is particularly so for these brave women MPs who led the way in opening up public and civic space for women and girls under the previous Afghan government," the statement said.
In an interview Tuesday, Powlowski said he doesn't fault the Canadian government for what happened to Nabizada.
"We've only been on this issue for the past two or three months. I think the government was looking to help them," he said. "Although it would be nice to see the government acting a lot quicker, I think this is not a long time to expect some action, especially given the fact [Canada] brought in 400,000 people, including at least 20,000 Afghans, and there are a lot of other cases of urgency in trying to help people."
Powlowski said it's not that important whether the Afghan women are brought to Canada, or to a different country.
He suggested that one possibility is for the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to declare a public policy exemption that would speed up the bureaucratic process.
"I'm happy this is a non-partisan issue. All parliamentarians, regardless of their political stripe, are on the same page in this in trying to help women who are in the position of being under threat solely because they participate in the democratic process and are advocating for the rights of women."
Powlowski said Minister Sean Fraser and the rest of the federal cabinet "have their hearts in the right place" in being ready and willing to help fellow parliamentarians who find themselves in desperate straits, but it's now a matter of doing it as fast as possible.
