Families of Canadian advisers in Taliban-run Afghanistan plea for help

A government has allowed a maximum of 380 principal applicants under the special program, which is expected to remain open until September.

The threats started with phone calls in 2011 to her home in Kandahar.

The mother of six had no idea her Canadian brother was working so close by, just 10 or 15 kilometres away, until the Taliban told her.

“Your brother is working for foreigners and your life is at risk because your brother works with foreigners,” she recalls the insurgents telling her in that first frightening phone call.

Her 25-year-old brother, who was given the code name “Sam” by the Canadian military, was in Afghanistan in secret to help Canadian troops navigate the unfamiliar cultural landscape and give advice to the commanders on the ground.

The Canadian Press has agreed not to use Sam’s real name or reveal his sister’s identity because of the threat she still faces from the Taliban.

The phone calls continued every four or five days for years. Sometimes the woman’s husband, a police officer, would pick up the phone.

Then one day in 2013, her husband was shot dead outside of the family’s home on his way to work. She believes he was targeted by the Taliban because of her brother’s work with the Canadian military.

Even after the killing, the phone calls continued. Then threatening letters began to arrive at the house.