Canadian PM Paul Martin visits Libya

[LaParkaMarka 0]

Here is the original article, with the fulltext below.

 

Tripoli — As the hour neared midnight and the bonfire burned down to embers last night, the aides began to glance nervously past the sleeping camels into the big tent behind them.

 

Prime Minister Paul Martin had been inside Libyan dictator Colonel Moammar Gadhafi's tent for more than an hour. The meeting, utterly unscheduled and spontaneously ordered by Col. Gadhafi over dinner, had no agenda or topic. A protocol officer threw his hands in the air. No Canadian leader had ever visited this mercurial leader, and things had very much not gone according to plan.

 

What were these two men doing? What deals were made in this huge Arab tent, ringed by armed soldiers, on a Libyan army base? What had the Prime Minister got himself into?

 

It was a strange climax to a very strange day.

 

While a neatly organized Canadian schedule had called for a conventional one-day state visit filled with official meetings, visits to factories and signings of contracts, Mr. Martin ended up spending a good part of the day seated on couches in a tent listening to Col. Gadhafi's unorthodox theories. At one point, as their talks dragged on, two camels mated clumsily just outside the tent.

 

"In terms of the camels outside and the scene, it was not the usual situation," Mr. Martin acknowledged at one point. "I have to ask myself, however, that when leaders come from the south in the middle of January, what they think of our 10-foot snowdrifts."

 

The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, as Libya has been known since its 1969 socialist revolution, has little in common with the Dominion of Canada, except perhaps a mutual desire to make money from Libya's considerable oil resources, now fully open to exploitation after the end of years of international embargos against the former terrorist state.

 

From the moment his Airbus jet landed at a former U.S. Air Force base that was seized during the revolution, Mr. Martin repeatedly offered his rationale for this unprecedented and controversial meeting.

 

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of Libya's decision to rid itself of chemical and nuclear weapons, he noted. This, along with Libya's apologies for bombings of jetliners and nightclubs in the 1980s and its payment of billions of dollars to the victims, has led this rogue country to make peace with the West.

 

Following in the footsteps of British, French and German leaders who visited earlier this year, Mr. Martin said he wanted to encourage Libyan moves toward normalcy while helping Canadian companies make profitable deals with Libya.

 

But such an olive branch would not be easy to extend. Col. Gadhafi, renowned for having financed dozens of international terrorist groups and liberation movements in the 1970s and '80s, still rules Libya as a cult of personality. His socialist republic permits no conventional democracy, punishes any form of dissent, and operates prisons and courts that have raised serious alarm among human-rights groups

 

The Prime Minister's aides said he spent time at both meetings criticizing Libya's rights record, which includes summary trials, seemingly arbitrary imprisonments, mass roundups of immigrants and severe punishment for people who attempt to form political parties or criticize Col. Gadhafi's rule.

 

Mr. Martin said his discussion with Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem included "everything from due process to the rights of families, the need for consular services. And we got down into individual cases, and had quite a detailed discussion as to what is required."

 

Aides said this included the imprisonment of Mustapha Muhammad Krer, a Canadian citizen imprisoned in Libya for political dissent, and two other prisoners with Canadian ties.

 

In an effort to give weight to these criticisms, Mr. Martin also extended to Col. Gadhafi one of the few things Canada can offer to encourage the country to mend its ways: an offer of most-favoured-nation trading status, a political recognition that could eventually help Libya win membership in the World Trade Organization. His aides did not say what conditions were attached to this offer.

 

Mr. Martin described a meeting in which human rights and money-making opportunities were discussed almost in the same breath — a natural combination, he said.

 

"I certainly believe, and I think history has demonstrated, that in fact increasing trade is a major encouragement to sounder human rights. You're not going to get strong human rights in countries that isolate themselves," he argued.

 

In business-trip terms, yesterday's pinnacle was the signing of a $1-billion memorandum of understanding between the Libyan government and the Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin for the expansion of the Great Man-Made River project, an enormous system of underground rivers that use aquifers beneath the Sahara to provide irrigation and drinking water for Libyan cities.

 

But Canadian officials quietly acknowledged that the hours spent in the tent yesterday had not been devoted as much to Canadian interests as to the Libyan leader's lectures on his own idiosyncratic theories: his belief in direct democracy, his ideas about complex conspiratorial links between the world's terrorist organizations and his belief that Israel and the Palestinian territories should unite to become a single nation known as "Isratine."

 

At one point late in the evening, Col. Gadhafi ushered a small group of Canadian journalists into the tent. After they had made a breakneck drive across the countryside and were searched by a sequence of increasingly menacing soldiers, they were invited into the spacious, incense-scented enclosure to hear the Libyan leader praise Canada's multicultural democracy and commitment to rights.

 

"Very soon, I expect Canada to be a Jamahiriya," Col. Gadhafi declared, unexpectedly, referring to his style of government which operates, in theory, as a state of the masses.

 

The Prime Minister looked briefly mortified. Then Col. Gadhafi roared with laughter, rocking back in his sofa.

 

Mr. Martin allowed himself a tight smile and a brief chuckle. But he seemed too shocked by the whole affair to propose, in return, that Libya maybe ought to turn itself into a dominion, or maybe a constitutional monarchy

 

I <3 insane dictators. I mean, Isratine? I think he lost his mind when Reagan bombed his daughter dead.

[Highland 0]

Two dictators meeting. Marvelous.

This will be all over the news here, and Martin is going to get burned.

[Guest INXS]

Gadaffi is actually changing - although he does still rule by dictatorship, he is doing a lot of good now for his country and is keen to welcome friends from the west, as seen by his visit to England last year where he met Tony Blair for talks. Without opening dialogue with leaders that have previously shunned the west, how can anyone expect things to get better.

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Two dictators meeting. Marvelous.

This will be all over the news here, and Martin is going to get burned.

Two dictators meeting. Marvelous

 

Paul Martin is hardly a dictator. Especially when you consider that I, well, VOTED for him on June 28 of this year.

 

Well, I voted for the Liberal candidate in my riding, Erie-Lincoln, which I'm sure all my fellow Canadians understand, but this is no time for semantics.

 

[Highland 0]

"Very soon, I expect Canada to be a Jamahiriya," Col. Gadhafi declared, unexpectedly, referring to his style of government which operates, in theory, as a state of the masses.

 

The Prime Minister looked briefly mortified. Then Col. Gadhafi roared with laughter, rocking back in his sofa.

 

Mr. Martin allowed himself a tight smile and a brief chuckle. But he seemed too shocked by the whole affair to propose, in return, that Libya maybe ought to turn itself into a dominion, or maybe a constitutional monarchy

 

Martin is so out of his league it's not even funny. He couldn't even bother to defend the values of the democracy of which he is a leader and representative.

 

Gadhafi owned Martin. Reminds me of Kennedy and Khrushchev.

[I like Forums 0]

Its a disgrace any Canadian voted Libral. Reguardless of political affiliation the Liberal party did not deserve even one vote.

[Guest sek69]

Two dictators meeting. Marvelous.

This will be all over the news here, and Martin is going to get burned.

I find it ironic that if someone made a comment like that involving Bush, the person making the comment would get the red ass fairly quick.

 

Besides, wasn't Team Bush offering Libya as an example of how former bad guys can become pals when faced with the awesomeness that is the Bush Doctrine?

[MARTYEWR 0]

Its a disgrace any Canadian voted Libral. Reguardless of political affiliation the Liberal party did not deserve even one vote.

I guess you're not upset over the sponsorship scandal at all, are ya?

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

 

Its a disgrace any Canadian voted Libral. Reguardless of political affiliation the Liberal party did not deserve even one vote.

 

Well, the thing was, I would have voted for the NDP, but I knew they weren't realistically going to get many seats or win. So, since I would never vote for a Conservative, I picked Liberal, to assure the conservatives would not win.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I would vote Liberal if it meant not letting the NDP win. They me be corrupt, but at least they aren't destructive. I had enough of the NDP when Bob Rae was premier of Ontario, and Layton's worse than he is.

[Red Baron 0]

I would vote Liberal if it meant not letting the NDP win. They me be corrupt, but at least they aren't destructive. I had enough of the NDP when Bob Rae was premier of Ontario, and Layton's worse than he is.

I like to get paid while I'm working.

 

and wow Highland, that was a moronic statement you made. You can hate Martin and Liberals all you want, but to call Martin a dictator just shows your arrogance.

[Highland 0]

I would vote Liberal if it meant not letting the NDP win.  They me be corrupt, but at least they aren't destructive.  I had enough of the NDP when Bob Rae was premier of Ontario, and Layton's worse than he is.

I like to get paid while I'm working.

 

and wow Highland, that was a moronic statement you made. You can hate Martin and Liberals all you want, but to call Martin a dictator just shows your arrogance.

Sarcasm is obviously lost on you. But then again I don't have such a high opinion of you considering you voted Liberal despite the scandal and corruption rife in that party.

Unlike you I actually think before I vote.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I would vote Liberal if it meant not letting the NDP win.  They me be corrupt, but at least they aren't destructive.  I had enough of the NDP when Bob Rae was premier of Ontario, and Layton's worse than he is.

I like to get paid while I'm working.

That's why I would never support the NDP. I don't want all my money going to pay to support some lazy bum next door that refuses to work.

[starvenger 0]

I would vote Liberal if it meant not letting the NDP win. They me be corrupt, but at least they aren't destructive. I had enough of the NDP when Bob Rae was premier of Ontario, and Layton's worse than he is.

Sad thing is, Layton's got him by the short and curlies. If the Liberals want to push anything through, they'll pretty much need the support of the NDP.

 

Its a disgrace any Canadian voted Libral. Reguardless of political affiliation the Liberal party did not deserve even one vote.

Funny, I thought all political parties were corrupt. I did, in fact, vote Liberal, mostly because I thought that there would be a minority goverment, and thus voted for the candidate who would best represent my riding.

 

I was also of the opinion that the Reformative Alliance wouldn't yet be cohesive enough to run an effective government. And 4-5 years from now I'll probably be voting Conservative, and I'll be watching Harper closely to see how much more he can "unite the right".

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Sad thing is, Layton's got him by the short and curlies. If the Liberals want to push anything through, they'll pretty much need the support of the NDP.

 

The NDP still doesn't give them the majority though.

[Red Baron 0]

nope, there's two independents in the House of Commons, one a former Liberal MP.

 

My riding has been Liberal MP since they made the House of Commons to 301 seats.

[Highland 0]

It doesn't matter who we vote for, they all run things the same way in the end. The trappings of power are too tempting for them to do what is right.

Despite this, I vote anyway, because I feel that brave people before me fought and died for my right to vote.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

nope, there's two independents in the House of Commons, one a former Liberal MP.

Who was kicked out of the party for saying that she would like to see the government defeated.

 

The Liberals & NDP together only hold 152 seats. The Bloq & Conservatives hold 153 seats. They get one more and the government falls (they will wait for the right timing though). Martin's not going to try and push anything too extreme through for that reason. The NDP has no say in what goes on at all. This isn't the 60s and 70s when they were holding the balance of power.

 

The government will fall, the question is when and how. Either the Conservatives will bring him down, or the Liberals will want their majority back and try to push something that they know won't get passed to try and force an election (like Trudeau did). We're looking at about a year and half tops before there will be another election.

[Red Baron 0]

didn't the former Liberal MP was kicked out of caucus because of her anti-Bush statements?

 

If Harper is still leading the "Conservatives" aka Reform Party, for the new election, I can see the Liberals gaining more seats than they have, while not being a majority government.

 

If Canada needs a new leader, they need a leader who has different beliefs than the Liberals, but nothing similar like Harper. And face it, Canada isn't stupid to vote for NDP for power.

[Red Baron 0]

Sarcasm is obviously lost on you. But then again I don't have such a high opinion of you considering you voted Liberal despite the scandal and corruption rife in that party.

Unlike you I actually think before I vote.

Yes, because Harper is the ideal man to lead Canada, and I agree with everything he says, and their political beliefs.

 

 

I'd never vote the "Conservative" party.

[Lightning Flik 0]

I'll admit that I voted Liberal in the past election. I was going to vote Conservative only if that lady who's name I forgot won the leadership of the party. Otherwise, I wouldn't vote Alliance or anyone else.

 

But yeah, we'll most likely be back to the election polls in a year or two tops. And if we go, I can say I'd probably vote Liberal again.

[CanadianChris 0]

I've voted Liberal for 11 years, and I'll continue to do so. They're the only party whose policies I agree with, for the most part.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

didn't the former Liberal MP was kicked out of caucus because of her anti-Bush statements?

 

Well, Martin got angry with her about that. But it wasn't til she lashed out against Martin that she ended up getting kicked out and deservedly so.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/20...rish041118.html

[AndrewTS 0]

*Is completely ignorant of Canadian politics, but got a chuckle out of the humping camels*

[The Mandarin 0]

*Is completely ignorant of humping camels but gets a chuckle out of Canadian politics*

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

When you say government falling, I keep thinking you mean a rise of the people to overthrow it or something.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

When you say government falling, I keep thinking you mean a rise of the people to overthrow it or something.

I mean that they put forward a measure that fails, we get a vote of no confidence and the Governor General dissolves parliament and calls an election.