Hiring wannabe translators or interpreters can be deadly

Here’s why it pays to always hire a professional and fully-trained translator or interpreter:

Defence Minister Peter MacKay has ordered officials to look into allegations that innocent Afghans may have been sent to jail due to botched translations by Canadian military interpreters.

Mr. MacKay's statement in the House of Commons Monday came as a counterinsurgency expert said U.S. forces have been plagued with the same concerns.

A former language and cultural adviser to the Canadian Forces said he witnessed at least two instances where innocent people were wrongly labelled as Taliban supporters because Afghan-Canadian interpreters did not understand what had been said.