26 February 2011
Ottawa, Ontario
Thank you all for coming this morning. I invited you in today in order to provide you with an update on the evacuation of Canadians from Libya and the opportunity to hear from the senior officials who have been directly coordinating this operation.
And I thank you very much gentlemen for making yourselves available today, as I know you are very busy. So, without delay, we have to my left Mr. Gérald Cossette who is the Associate Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. To his left are Blair James, Assistant Deputy Minister for Consular Affairs and Emergency Management and Mr. Gordon Venner, Assistant Deputy Minister for the Middle East, and to my right is Rear Admiral Davidson with the Canadian Armed Forces/Strategic Joint Staff.
I have a quick statement for you off the top; we will then address any questions that you may have.
As the crisis continues to escalate in Libya, the Government of Canada reiterates its call on the Libyan regime to cease the use of force and the atrocious abuses against civilians.
As the Prime Minister announced last evening, our Government is preparing to impose sanctions on Libya. We are working closely with our like-minded partners and with the UN on a full range of sanctions.
The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet today to consider the matter of sanctions. Canada fully supports a resolution that would impose a wide range of sanctions on the Gadaffi regime. Further, we ask that the UNSC refer the situation in Libya to the International Criminal Court to ensure that those responsible for attacks against the civilian population of Libya are brought to justice.
Minister Cannon will attend a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council Monday in Geneva, to vigorously represent Canada's views on the evolving crisis, and will repeat Canada's call for Libya's immediate suspension from the Council.
Turning to the evacuation operation now. Overnight, DFAIT's Emergency Operations Centre reached out aggressively and repeatedly to all remaining Canadians in Libya asking them to leave the country. Last night, the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defence ordered the C-17 to depart from Malta and land in Tripoli. The C-17 landed in Tripoli at 5:35 this morning, Ottawa time. It was impossible to obtain diplomatic clearances from the Libyans, but the mission to land proceeded regardless.
Throughout the night here in Ottawa, we aggressively and persistently informed Canadians in Libya that they needed to make their way to air and sea ports and informed them of the Canadian Armed Forces C-17 Aircraft that has now departed from Tripoli and is about to land.
Based on the recommendation of our Ambassador in Tripoli, and in close and constant collaboration with the actions of our international partners, such as the Americans and others, the Government has decided today to suspend its diplomatic presence in Libya and has instructed all Canada-based staff to depart Libya on the C-17 flight. The C-17 will return the evacuees to Malta. A C-17 will remain there on standby until further notice – should the need to evacuate more Canadians arise. The evacuation operation is still ongoing.
The C-17 has evacuated a total of 46 people, of which 24 are Canadians, 12 Brits, the 3-member Australian diplomatic team and other nationals.
Canada will continue to repeatedly inform registered Canadians by phone and through consular advice at travel.gc.ca on opportunities to leave the country by sea or air.
Before we turn to questions, I would like to address a few issues that I believe require your full attention.
First, Canadians did not find themselves on the charters of other nations by coincidence. Through a very elaborate and well-organised-by-our-diplomats 24-7 operation, spanning from the Pearson Building, to capitals across Europe and on the ground in the chaos of the Tripoli airport and port at Benghazi, Canadian officials have worked diligently and tirelessly. They have worked around the clock with partners around the word to ensure safe passage for Canadians by any and all means to reach safety as quickly as possible.
Second, as you have all widely reported, the first Canadian charter to successfully land in Tripoli was forced to depart without passengers on board. The same situation repeated itself last night. Contrary to being an indication of a lack of organization on the ground, this fact speaks to the success that was achieved in arranging transport for Canadians in conjunction with our partners during daylight hours.
As the Prime Minister, Ministers Cannon and MacKay and officials have explained this week, when an aircraft is ready for departure during a narrow window, and when a country has the means to accommodate foreign nationals, seats are offered and accepted and people move out as quickly as possible.
Prudent planning prompted our Government's decision to build in redundancies in order to address the real possibility that Canadians could have been stranded at the Tripoli airport in the overnight hours in a very threatening environment. Put another way, had any of our allies' charter flights not been available to evacuate Canadians during daylight hours on Thursday or Friday, the redundant aircraft would have relieved a significant amount of risk to Canadians in the overnight period. In the end, this was not required.
Finally, I would like to point out that during a 24-hour period; consular advice to Canadians is apt to change multiple times depending on a number of factors. For instance, during the overnight hours, Canadians are discouraged from moving about the city, but then are instructed to go to the airport when safe to do so after sunrise. Blair can elaborate on this further. The point here is that it is imperative for Canadians to register with travel.gc.ca or call the Emergency Ops Centre in order to receive the most up-to-date consular advice in the event of an emergency. Your help and due diligence in communicating this to your audiences would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you. We will be happy to take your questions now.
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