Canada’s foreign affairs minister wants to see Libyan leader Gadhafi next week
By APThursday, September 24, 2009
Canada’s FA minister wants to see Moammar Gadhafi
TORONTO — Canada’s foreign affairs minister said Thursday he plans to try to meet with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi when he stops in Canada next week.
Lawrence Cannon said he wants to express Canada’s displeasure over the hero’s welcome Libya gave to the man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing. All 259 people aboard Pan Am Flight 103 and 11 people on the ground died when a bomb blew up the plane over Scotland in 1988.
Gadhafi arranged a welcome for the cancer-stricken Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was released from a Scottish prison last month on compassionate grounds.
Gadhafi will stop in Newfoundland and Labrador next week on his way back to Libya from the United Nations, where he addressed the General Assembly for the first time.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Dimitri Soudas, emphasized that it is not an official visit to Canada. He noted it’s common for trans-Atlantic flights to stop in Newfoundland and Labrador to refuel.
