StarBuzz Weekly, Toronto-February 28, 2011 Ottawa - 11:15 AM EST
Hon. John Baird: Today, I am pleased to update you on our government’s actions to impose sanctions against Libya. This morning, I tabled in the House of Commons the necessary documents to proceed with the implementation of the measures announced by Prime Minister Harper yesterday. These measures include those endorsed unanimously by the United Nations Security Council and Resolution 1970 and others that we are adopting independently.
As the Prime Minister said and clearly – the Prime Minister clearly said yesterday, the actions of the current Libyan regime are unacceptable, are appalling and will not be tolerated by the international community. These sanctions that we’re imposing include a comprehensive arms embargo, the inspection of cargo going into Libya, a travel ban on Moammar Gadhafi and 15 individuals closely associated with him and his regime and an asset freeze against Moammar Gadhafi and members of his family.
We are even going further. Our government will impose an asset freeze on and a prohibition of financial transactions with the Government of Libya, its institutions and agencies, including the Libyan Central Bank. As the Prime Minister said last night, these actions will help restrict the movement of and access to money and weapons for those responsible for violence against the Libyan people. Our government stands with our international allies in calling for an immediate end to the bloodshed and the violence against the Libyan people by the current regime.
With that, I’m happy to take your questions.
Question: What kind of financial transactions are you talking about? Which banks did the Libyan regime try to take money out? Can you clarify that?
Hon. John Baird: Sure. Let me say that we are aware of specific financial dealings of the Libyan regime in financial institutions in Canada and the actions taken by our government have blocked those. Obviously, for operational reasons, I won’t go into specifics. And I understand —
Question: How much money are we talking about?
Hon. John Baird: Every – we’re attempting to block every financial transaction to the groups, regime and individuals that we’ve named. I obviously can’t get into specifics – I obviously can’t get into specific operational issues but there were specific instances.
Question: Mr. Baird, when did Gadhafi begin to start putting money into Canada? 2004 after —
Hon. John Baird: For operational reasons, I can’t give that. Obviously what we’re committed to do is to work with our international allies and go even farther to ensure that none of that money will either support the regime or would be used to finance the appalling violence we’re seeing against the Libyan people.
Question: Can you clarify whether this bans Canadian companies from doing commercial business there or simply financial transactions, that is taking money in and out? Can they —
Hon. John Baird: Sure. Let me – let me speak – let me speak directly – let me speak directly to that. Obviously there are Canadian companies who have operations there. This doesn’t – this doesn’t eliminate commercial activities. What it does do is refrain financial transactions with the Libyan government and with the Libyan Central Bank. Obviously, we don’t want to see commercial operations flowing money into the regime at this time that would be used either to be stolen or to be, even worse, used to finance the violence against the Libyan people. We are hoping that the hard line taken by the international community, even harder line taken by our government against the current Libyan regime will bring about change quickly and the negative impact of these sanctions will be limited and will be very short term.
Question: How much money did the Libyan government have here and where was it?
Hon. John Baird: Obviously, for operational reasons I can’t get into specifics. We learned —
Question: Why not?
Hon. John Baird: For operational —
Question: Why is that an operational issue?
Hon. John Baird: We’re working – we’re working to stop every transaction. The measures that were taken yesterday have effectively blocked the transfer. I think a bunch of – a number of Canadian financial institutions now are obviously working hard to identify not just assets with respects to Mr. Gadhafi and his family but also the Libyan regime. I think we want to ensure that, you know, assets that legitimately belong to the Libyan people are not stolen and as well, even worse, that these financial resources are not used against – to support violence against the Libyan people.
Question: Companies working on joint projects – sir, companies working on joint projects with the Libyan government like building government Libyan jails, irrigation systems, working in partnership to produce oil, how are those operations going to be affected?
Hon. John Baird: At first we’re hoping that the negative aspects of the sanctions are limited and short term and will affect regime change. Obviously, the Prime Minister spoke very clearly on what Canada’s expectations from Mr. Gadhafi. What we don’t want is there’s not a ban on commercial activity. There is with respect to arms sales and other institutions. What we don’t want is Canadian enterprises, you know, funnelling money to the regime in commercial transactions. So, you know, for example, a company like SNC Lavalin which had invested billions of dollars in Libya, we have been in contact with SNC Lavalin to explain the situation. We hope that these measures are very time limited and the regime change occurs in very short order.
Question: Does that mean SNC Lavalin cannot operate there?
Hon. John Baird: They can operate there. They can operate commercially. What they can’t do is operate financially with either the Libyan government or the Central Bank of Libya.
Question: Does that mean (inaudible) can’t make any payments to the Libyan government?
Hon. John Baird: Yes.
Question: (Inaudible)
Question: Question en français, s’il-vous-plaît.
Hon. John Baird: Well, I don’t think in this period – I would be stunned if that’s going on. And what we have been doing is trying to evacuate Canadians from Libya. Some 250 have already been evacuated. Some were evacuated just from an oil – I’ve got the numbers here. Just from oil installations. We obviously had a C-17 land in Malta this morning with even more Canadians and some other foreign nationals that are allies. I think the situation is deteriorating, that we’re not looking at any commercial expansion. I don’t think any company in their right mind would be looking at —
Question: Question en français, s’il-vous-plaît.
Question: Qu’est-ce qui arrive à SNC Lavalin si le gouvernement libyen doit des fonds à SNC? Est-ce que ---
L’hon. John Baird: Notre but avec SNC Lavalin, et on a parlé avec SNC Lavalin, est qu’il ne donne pas l’argent au régime ou M. Gadhafi qui peut voler de le peuple libyen ou, plus bas que ça, peut être utilisé pour la promotion de la violence contre les peuples libyens. So notre préférence est que les actions de les Nations Unies et du Canada et les réactions de la communauté internationale regardent une solution aussitôt que possible et j’espère que ces mesures seront pas nécessaires pour une longue période de temps.
Question: Quand le gel des actifs sera-t-il en vigueur?
L’hon. John Baird: Immédiatement. Hier. Hier.
Question: (Inaudible) companies – are there other companies besides SNC Lavalin?
Hon. John Baird: I mean there’s some in the energy sector but, again, the situation is deteriorating rapidly. We’re evacuating a majority of the Canadians who are working in these institutions. So obviously – so obviously – so obviously that is the considerations of expanding commercial activities I don’t think will happen any time soon.
Question: (Inaudible)
Hon. John Baird: That’ll be – you know, my colleague Lawrence Cannon is in Geneva right now with colleagues from around the world. They’ll obviously be looking, discussing the issue and a range of matters. We obviously don’t have anything to announce with respect to that at this time.
Question: And what about humanitarian assistance? The UN calls it a crisis of all those people crossing the border. Is Canada going to be contributing in any way?
Hon. John Baird: I think our first – our first priority has been to assist Canadians by providing consular services to get Canadians out of harm’s way. Obviously, we’re working with our allies with respect to – with respect to the sanctions and efforts to immediately see this appalling regime replaced. We’ll obviously – we’re following the situation tremendously closely, frankly not just in Libya but obviously there’s a significant number of refugees crossing the border into both Tunisia and Egypt and this is something obviously the Canadian government is watching closely and working on but we don’t have anything to announce in that respect today.
Question: Sanctions didn’t work in Iraq. Why do you think they’ll work this time?
Hon. John Baird: I think the appalling actions of this regime and the unanimity and expeditious action by the UN Security Council, the additional measures taken for Canada, we hope that the significant change that’s going on in Libya will see this regime change and change immediately. I think it’s had an immediate effect already by blocking the export of any financial resources to the benefit of the regime or to be used for the promotion of violence against the Libyan people. I think you’ve seen an unprecedented international consensus come very, very quickly. Canada is part of that. In addition, we’re obviously going farther with the two acts that we have the capacity to do so today.
Question: Why not a complete import/export ban to block of any sort of ability of the Libyan government to sell anything to Canada or to receive materials? Why not go that complete step?
Hon. John Baird: Obviously we can’t – there’s no – they can’t sell – the Libyan government under these measures can’t sell – can’t – we’re blocking financial transactions with both the government, its institutions and the Libyan Central Bank which obviously have the effect to do that. What we are hoping is that we’ll see this appalling regime replaced in very, very short order. Obviously, things are changing on an hour by hour basis on the ground and our officials at Foreign Affairs and the Embassy on the ground are obviously monitoring the situation closely. We’ve taken similarly extraordinary action and a lot of people worked tremendously hard all weekend so that we could move as expeditiously as possible. And as of last night, the regime is not able to – not able to take any financial resources out of Canadian financial institutions. Obviously, those institutions are looking at this very closely first thing this morning and we’ll continue to follow the situation on an hour by hour basis.
Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup.
Hon. John Baird: Today, I am pleased to update you on our government’s actions to impose sanctions against Libya. This morning, I tabled in the House of Commons the necessary documents to proceed with the implementation of the measures announced by Prime Minister Harper yesterday. These measures include those endorsed unanimously by the United Nations Security Council and Resolution 1970 and others that we are adopting independently.
As the Prime Minister said and clearly – the Prime Minister clearly said yesterday, the actions of the current Libyan regime are unacceptable, are appalling and will not be tolerated by the international community. These sanctions that we’re imposing include a comprehensive arms embargo, the inspection of cargo going into Libya, a travel ban on Moammar Gadhafi and 15 individuals closely associated with him and his regime and an asset freeze against Moammar Gadhafi and members of his family.
We are even going further. Our government will impose an asset freeze on and a prohibition of financial transactions with the Government of Libya, its institutions and agencies, including the Libyan Central Bank. As the Prime Minister said last night, these actions will help restrict the movement of and access to money and weapons for those responsible for violence against the Libyan people. Our government stands with our international allies in calling for an immediate end to the bloodshed and the violence against the Libyan people by the current regime.
With that, I’m happy to take your questions.
Question: What kind of financial transactions are you talking about? Which banks did the Libyan regime try to take money out? Can you clarify that?
Hon. John Baird: Sure. Let me say that we are aware of specific financial dealings of the Libyan regime in financial institutions in Canada and the actions taken by our government have blocked those. Obviously, for operational reasons, I won’t go into specifics. And I understand —
Question: How much money are we talking about?
Hon. John Baird: Every – we’re attempting to block every financial transaction to the groups, regime and individuals that we’ve named. I obviously can’t get into specifics – I obviously can’t get into specific operational issues but there were specific instances.
Question: Mr. Baird, when did Gadhafi begin to start putting money into Canada? 2004 after —
Hon. John Baird: For operational reasons, I can’t give that. Obviously what we’re committed to do is to work with our international allies and go even farther to ensure that none of that money will either support the regime or would be used to finance the appalling violence we’re seeing against the Libyan people.
Question: Can you clarify whether this bans Canadian companies from doing commercial business there or simply financial transactions, that is taking money in and out? Can they —
Hon. John Baird: Sure. Let me – let me speak – let me speak directly – let me speak directly to that. Obviously there are Canadian companies who have operations there. This doesn’t – this doesn’t eliminate commercial activities. What it does do is refrain financial transactions with the Libyan government and with the Libyan Central Bank. Obviously, we don’t want to see commercial operations flowing money into the regime at this time that would be used either to be stolen or to be, even worse, used to finance the violence against the Libyan people. We are hoping that the hard line taken by the international community, even harder line taken by our government against the current Libyan regime will bring about change quickly and the negative impact of these sanctions will be limited and will be very short term.
Question: How much money did the Libyan government have here and where was it?
Hon. John Baird: Obviously, for operational reasons I can’t get into specifics. We learned —
Question: Why not?
Hon. John Baird: For operational —
Question: Why is that an operational issue?
Hon. John Baird: We’re working – we’re working to stop every transaction. The measures that were taken yesterday have effectively blocked the transfer. I think a bunch of – a number of Canadian financial institutions now are obviously working hard to identify not just assets with respects to Mr. Gadhafi and his family but also the Libyan regime. I think we want to ensure that, you know, assets that legitimately belong to the Libyan people are not stolen and as well, even worse, that these financial resources are not used against – to support violence against the Libyan people.
Question: Companies working on joint projects – sir, companies working on joint projects with the Libyan government like building government Libyan jails, irrigation systems, working in partnership to produce oil, how are those operations going to be affected?
Hon. John Baird: At first we’re hoping that the negative aspects of the sanctions are limited and short term and will affect regime change. Obviously, the Prime Minister spoke very clearly on what Canada’s expectations from Mr. Gadhafi. What we don’t want is there’s not a ban on commercial activity. There is with respect to arms sales and other institutions. What we don’t want is Canadian enterprises, you know, funnelling money to the regime in commercial transactions. So, you know, for example, a company like SNC Lavalin which had invested billions of dollars in Libya, we have been in contact with SNC Lavalin to explain the situation. We hope that these measures are very time limited and the regime change occurs in very short order.
Question: Does that mean SNC Lavalin cannot operate there?
Hon. John Baird: They can operate there. They can operate commercially. What they can’t do is operate financially with either the Libyan government or the Central Bank of Libya.
Question: Does that mean (inaudible) can’t make any payments to the Libyan government?
Hon. John Baird: Yes.
Question: (Inaudible)
Question: Question en français, s’il-vous-plaît.
Hon. John Baird: Well, I don’t think in this period – I would be stunned if that’s going on. And what we have been doing is trying to evacuate Canadians from Libya. Some 250 have already been evacuated. Some were evacuated just from an oil – I’ve got the numbers here. Just from oil installations. We obviously had a C-17 land in Malta this morning with even more Canadians and some other foreign nationals that are allies. I think the situation is deteriorating, that we’re not looking at any commercial expansion. I don’t think any company in their right mind would be looking at —
Question: Question en français, s’il-vous-plaît.
Question: Qu’est-ce qui arrive à SNC Lavalin si le gouvernement libyen doit des fonds à SNC? Est-ce que ---
L’hon. John Baird: Notre but avec SNC Lavalin, et on a parlé avec SNC Lavalin, est qu’il ne donne pas l’argent au régime ou M. Gadhafi qui peut voler de le peuple libyen ou, plus bas que ça, peut être utilisé pour la promotion de la violence contre les peuples libyens. So notre préférence est que les actions de les Nations Unies et du Canada et les réactions de la communauté internationale regardent une solution aussitôt que possible et j’espère que ces mesures seront pas nécessaires pour une longue période de temps.
Question: Quand le gel des actifs sera-t-il en vigueur?
L’hon. John Baird: Immédiatement. Hier. Hier.
Question: (Inaudible) companies – are there other companies besides SNC Lavalin?
Hon. John Baird: I mean there’s some in the energy sector but, again, the situation is deteriorating rapidly. We’re evacuating a majority of the Canadians who are working in these institutions. So obviously – so obviously – so obviously that is the considerations of expanding commercial activities I don’t think will happen any time soon.
Question: (Inaudible)
Hon. John Baird: That’ll be – you know, my colleague Lawrence Cannon is in Geneva right now with colleagues from around the world. They’ll obviously be looking, discussing the issue and a range of matters. We obviously don’t have anything to announce with respect to that at this time.
Question: And what about humanitarian assistance? The UN calls it a crisis of all those people crossing the border. Is Canada going to be contributing in any way?
Hon. John Baird: I think our first – our first priority has been to assist Canadians by providing consular services to get Canadians out of harm’s way. Obviously, we’re working with our allies with respect to – with respect to the sanctions and efforts to immediately see this appalling regime replaced. We’ll obviously – we’re following the situation tremendously closely, frankly not just in Libya but obviously there’s a significant number of refugees crossing the border into both Tunisia and Egypt and this is something obviously the Canadian government is watching closely and working on but we don’t have anything to announce in that respect today.
Question: Sanctions didn’t work in Iraq. Why do you think they’ll work this time?
Hon. John Baird: I think the appalling actions of this regime and the unanimity and expeditious action by the UN Security Council, the additional measures taken for Canada, we hope that the significant change that’s going on in Libya will see this regime change and change immediately. I think it’s had an immediate effect already by blocking the export of any financial resources to the benefit of the regime or to be used for the promotion of violence against the Libyan people. I think you’ve seen an unprecedented international consensus come very, very quickly. Canada is part of that. In addition, we’re obviously going farther with the two acts that we have the capacity to do so today.
Question: Why not a complete import/export ban to block of any sort of ability of the Libyan government to sell anything to Canada or to receive materials? Why not go that complete step?
Hon. John Baird: Obviously we can’t – there’s no – they can’t sell – the Libyan government under these measures can’t sell – can’t – we’re blocking financial transactions with both the government, its institutions and the Libyan Central Bank which obviously have the effect to do that. What we are hoping is that we’ll see this appalling regime replaced in very, very short order. Obviously, things are changing on an hour by hour basis on the ground and our officials at Foreign Affairs and the Embassy on the ground are obviously monitoring the situation closely. We’ve taken similarly extraordinary action and a lot of people worked tremendously hard all weekend so that we could move as expeditiously as possible. And as of last night, the regime is not able to – not able to take any financial resources out of Canadian financial institutions. Obviously, those institutions are looking at this very closely first thing this morning and we’ll continue to follow the situation on an hour by hour basis.
Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup.
No comments :
Post a Comment
Your comments are welcome.