Canada envoy quits Libya post

[iolsa]

Ottawa - Canada's ambassador in Libya has quit her post, Ottawa said on Wednesday as a government source denied reports she was sidelined because her husband had worked for a son of Muammar Gaddafi.

Sandra McCardell "is no longer our ambassador in Libya," Chris Day, spokesman for Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, told AFP.

Canada's charge d'affaires in Tripoli will fill in until a new envoy is named, he added.

Canadian media suggested that her husband's ties to the Gaddafi regime precipitated McCardell's departure.

Her husband Edis Zagorac had been hired to work as part of a military-civilian engineering unit created by Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin and a son of former strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

It was tasked with building a prison and other projects, according to documents obtained by Canada's public broadcaster.

The revelation led Baird in January to order a review of Canada's policies on companies doing work for foreign militaries.

At the time Baird's office, however, rebuffed suggestions of any wrongdoing on the part of the ambassador over her husband's job, saying McCardell had sought the "proper guidance" from the department on the matter.

On Wednesday, a government source said she was "not fired" as had been reported, and that Baird still held her in high esteem, with an "exemplary and promising" diplomatic career ahead.

The source noted that McCardell had established very good relations with the National Transitional Council during last year's  unrest in Libya. - Sapa-AFP



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