Why can't this government just get it's act together? We shouldn't have to rely on other countries to do what our government should have well in hand.
OTTAWA—Canada’s troubled Libyan evacuation plan hit more snags on Friday.
One plane flew out empty. A Foreign Affairs advisory told Canadians not to go to the Tripoli airport, even as a second plane was en route.
There were reports that Canadians were making their own ways out, by air, sea and land. A Foreign Affairs tally of evacuees came close to the number of people who had originally said they wanted out of the unstable country.
When asked by the CBC how many Canadian citizens they had evacuated a Foreign Affairs spokesperson said the “number currently stands at zero.”
“[My understanding is] that all of our citizens have found their own way out, through the good graces of our allies,” the spokesperson told the CBC.
Although the United States pulled out its diplomats and closed its embassy, the Canadians stayed put.
“The embassy in Tripoli continues to offer emergency consular services to Canadians,” a Foreign Affairs spokesman said in an email.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay blamed confusion in Tripoli for the empty plane incident.
“That has to do with co-ordination on the ground, ensuring that people are aware that an exit is available to them,” he said.
“We’re trying to coordinate that through the Department of Foreign Affairs and through other countries.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada and its allies are willing to carry each other’s citizens.
“When a plane of ours arrives, obviously, we first board Canadians,” he said. “If we still have room, we board others — and that’s what all countries do. So we are taking out each other’s (evacuees) if we have the possibility of doing so.
“Many of the Canadians had left on an earlier, or earlier, flights.”
He said evacuation efforts will continue.
“We will continue to work to try and get those out who are prepared to leave.”
Even as a second chartered plane was dispatched from Amman, Foreign Affairs was urging Canadians through its website not to try to make it to Tripoli’s overwhelmed airport:
“Canadians who are not already at Tripoli International Airport should not attempt to reach it as the situation at the airport is extremely chaotic.”
Foreign Affairs didn’t responded to an email asking for an explanation of how people were to be evacuated if they are warned away from the airport.
The government insists that getting Canadians to safety remains the priority.
“Our diplomats are working extremely hard to accomplish this and, obviously, coordinating their efforts with their international counterparts,” Harper said.
The airport at Benghazi, an eastern Libyan city which appears to be under rebel control, is closed and the Canadian government is still trying to figure out how to get Canadians out of the region.
Canadians who have escaped so far went out on an American-hired ferry and planes brought in by various allies.
Some had chilling stories. Nova Scotia oil worker Glen Sutherland told his family that armed rebels attacked the oil rig where he was working and set it ablaze.
Sutherland and two co-workers fled into the desert, made their way to Tripoli and then to Malta.
“Glen made it out and is resting but he was completely exhausted when we were talking to him,” his father Gary Sutherland said from his home in Coldbrook, N.S. “I guess he was up for quite a few days.”
Sutherland said his son didn’t provide a lot of detail.
“The challenge remains getting landing slots in Tripoli,” MacKay said.
“We’re working in close collaboration with a number of countries to coordinate either commercial aircraft or the landing of a military aircraft.”
Harper spoke on Thursday with British Prime Minister David Cameron and discussed their mutually “grave concern” about the violence in Libya, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
“The two prime ministers expressed their grave concern about deeply disturbing actions of the Gadhafi regime in suppressing and attacking its own citizens. They agreed to remain in close touch and to work hand-in-glove, both in terms of helping evacuate their nationals and others from Libya, and in finding ways to promote peace and democracy in that country and the region at large.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon is urging all Canadians to leave the country as it slides toward a civil war pitting citizen protesters and parts of the military against hard-line supporters of Moammar Gadhafi.
Gadhafi urged his partisans to defend the country, while his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi vowed that the family will “live and die in Libya.”
Cannon said the situation is going downhill.
“The situation in Libya is very quickly changing and continues to become more dangerous.”
OTTAWA—Canada’s troubled Libyan evacuation plan hit more snags on Friday.
One plane flew out empty. A Foreign Affairs advisory told Canadians not to go to the Tripoli airport, even as a second plane was en route.
There were reports that Canadians were making their own ways out, by air, sea and land. A Foreign Affairs tally of evacuees came close to the number of people who had originally said they wanted out of the unstable country.
When asked by the CBC how many Canadian citizens they had evacuated a Foreign Affairs spokesperson said the “number currently stands at zero.”
“[My understanding is] that all of our citizens have found their own way out, through the good graces of our allies,” the spokesperson told the CBC.
Although the United States pulled out its diplomats and closed its embassy, the Canadians stayed put.
“The embassy in Tripoli continues to offer emergency consular services to Canadians,” a Foreign Affairs spokesman said in an email.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay blamed confusion in Tripoli for the empty plane incident.
“That has to do with co-ordination on the ground, ensuring that people are aware that an exit is available to them,” he said.
“We’re trying to coordinate that through the Department of Foreign Affairs and through other countries.”
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada and its allies are willing to carry each other’s citizens.
“When a plane of ours arrives, obviously, we first board Canadians,” he said. “If we still have room, we board others — and that’s what all countries do. So we are taking out each other’s (evacuees) if we have the possibility of doing so.
“Many of the Canadians had left on an earlier, or earlier, flights.”
He said evacuation efforts will continue.
“We will continue to work to try and get those out who are prepared to leave.”
Even as a second chartered plane was dispatched from Amman, Foreign Affairs was urging Canadians through its website not to try to make it to Tripoli’s overwhelmed airport:
“Canadians who are not already at Tripoli International Airport should not attempt to reach it as the situation at the airport is extremely chaotic.”
Foreign Affairs didn’t responded to an email asking for an explanation of how people were to be evacuated if they are warned away from the airport.
The government insists that getting Canadians to safety remains the priority.
“Our diplomats are working extremely hard to accomplish this and, obviously, coordinating their efforts with their international counterparts,” Harper said.
The airport at Benghazi, an eastern Libyan city which appears to be under rebel control, is closed and the Canadian government is still trying to figure out how to get Canadians out of the region.
Canadians who have escaped so far went out on an American-hired ferry and planes brought in by various allies.
Some had chilling stories. Nova Scotia oil worker Glen Sutherland told his family that armed rebels attacked the oil rig where he was working and set it ablaze.
Sutherland and two co-workers fled into the desert, made their way to Tripoli and then to Malta.
“Glen made it out and is resting but he was completely exhausted when we were talking to him,” his father Gary Sutherland said from his home in Coldbrook, N.S. “I guess he was up for quite a few days.”
Sutherland said his son didn’t provide a lot of detail.
“The challenge remains getting landing slots in Tripoli,” MacKay said.
“We’re working in close collaboration with a number of countries to coordinate either commercial aircraft or the landing of a military aircraft.”
Harper spoke on Thursday with British Prime Minister David Cameron and discussed their mutually “grave concern” about the violence in Libya, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement.
“The two prime ministers expressed their grave concern about deeply disturbing actions of the Gadhafi regime in suppressing and attacking its own citizens. They agreed to remain in close touch and to work hand-in-glove, both in terms of helping evacuate their nationals and others from Libya, and in finding ways to promote peace and democracy in that country and the region at large.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon is urging all Canadians to leave the country as it slides toward a civil war pitting citizen protesters and parts of the military against hard-line supporters of Moammar Gadhafi.
Gadhafi urged his partisans to defend the country, while his son Seif al-Islam Gadhafi vowed that the family will “live and die in Libya.”
Cannon said the situation is going downhill.
“The situation in Libya is very quickly changing and continues to become more dangerous.”
