Confusion over Libyan visas for Canadians
Last Updated: Monday, October 26, 2009 | 12:53 PM ET
CBC News
There appears to be some confusion over whether Libya has stopped issuing visas to Canadians.
Media outlets were reporting Sunday that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had told officials to refuse visa applications from Canadians.
The move came in an apparent reprisal for Canada's near tongue-lashing of Gadhafi. He cancelled a planned stopover in Newfoundland last month after the Harper government made public its intention to scold him over the hero's welcome Libya gave a man convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
But on Monday, an assistant to Canada's foreign affairs minister said "there is no proof Gadhafi has issued that order at all," calling it an exaggeration.
There are no unusual reports of Canadians being kept out of Libya, Catherine Loubier said, adding the department has heard of only one Canadian who has had some problems gettting a visa.
The issue was expected to come up in question period in the House of Commons Monday. There are reports that it is more onerous currently for Canadians to get visas to go to or travel through Libya, which left some Canadians who were part of recent tourist groups travelling in the Middle East and North Africa in the lurch.
The move could also affect some Canadian companies doing business in the country, such as Calgary's Pure Technologies, which has employees travelling in and out of Libya working on the Great Man-Made River Project, the world's largest irrigation initiative.
Loubier says the department is aware of the problem. Cannon raised it with Libyan officials when he was in Tripoli last week and they "are working towards a positive resolution of the matter," she said.
Gadhafi drew international criticism in August for throwing a huge welcome-home party for Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was convicted in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 that killed 270 people. Al-Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.
The national fete for a convicted terrorist outraged many, especially the relatives of the victims.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the action "constituted an insult to all the victims who died, including Canadians."
