Has anyone in Foreign Affairs been paying attention to what’s been happening in Lebanon for the last week? Perhaps the bombs are simply not loud enough!
Foreign nationals are being evacuated from every nook and cranny. The Europeans have sent warships to retrieve their citizens. The Americans have a destroyer & helicopters lifting their citizens to safety. Public information announcements from embassies in Beirut are being broadcast on local television — even in Russian, according to some reports!
As for Canada? An embassy staff that doesn’t seem to have a clue what to do, and can’t communicate any helpful information, even though lives depend on it! Chartered cruise ships that won’t even be available to pick up Canadians until mid-week…that is, if Canadian officials can actually get themselves organized. I hear people pleading on CBC television and radio, asking for help, because they’re stuck in a war zone, they have sick children and relatives, and there is no information forthcoming about evacuation.
Is this the response of a G-8 nation? It’s certainly not helped by our Prime Minister’s complete inability to demonstrate any concern or empathy in public, for the conflict in general, or our stranded citizens’ plight specifically. He’s a bloody wax-works figure!
CBC’s Nahlah Ayed reported from Beirut on Monday that French ships are already docking at ports in Lebanon to pick up French citizens. Ayed, who visited the Canadian Embassy in Beirut on Monday, said there has been no official information from the embassy on when or where the Canadian ships will dock:
“There are still logistical nightmares to work out, nightmares for people who just want to get out. This is a country with no way in or no way out unless you are a foreign national waiting for a ship.”
Nancy Kendle, a photographer from Winnipeg in Lebanon on vacation, told CBC News on Sunday that the federal government is still scrambling to get organized to help Canadians who want to go home:
“You can’t get through to the embassy. It’s busy, or when you do, you get a person that knows nothing and has heard nothing from the Canadian government. Their website is ridiculous. They’re still talking about Canada Day. It’s ridiculous.”
Canadians are already dead in this conflict. Several more have been wounded.
Why hasn’t the government made arrangements for our allies (the USA, the UK) to pick up our citizens? Isn’t that a common response by allied nations, if there is a problem in reaching foreign nationals in time?
Why is the best we can manage two Cyprus-based cruise ships, that are still otherwise engaged?
Why are some of our citizens having to bribe their way out of the country?
Who the hell is RUNNING this gong show? Look at this picture of the line up at the Canadian Embassy in Beirut — people desperate for information and evacuation. Canadians should NOT have to take part in a twisted version of “Escape from Saigon” in order to get home!
As I prepare to fly overseas on vacation, I’m beginning to wonder how well my tax money is being spent by Foreign Affairs. Up to forty thousand Canadians might be stranded in Lebanon, with no way out, even as other foreign nationals are ferried to safety. If something happens to me while I’m abroad, will I face the same non-response if I have to get home because of an emergency? Will I have to deal with the same snail’s-pace incompetence?
Congratulations, Canada: we now look exceedingly stupid and incompetent compared to other nations. At this rate, I’m beginning to wonder if more Canadians are going to have to die before any positive action will be taken to rescue our fellow citizens…
