Canada is offering its deepest sympathies after news of Poland's president and several top-ranking officials being killed in a plane crash whipped across the globe on Saturday.
"It is with shock and profound sadness that I learned this morning of the terrible tragedy," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a statement.
Poland's president Lech Kaczynski, his wife and several senior Polish political and military leaders were among the 97 victims of the crash in western Russia.
The presidential plane came down in heavy fog as it was travelling to events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre, where thousands of Polish officers died at the hands of Soviet secret police.
"President Lech Kaczynski was a man who stood proudly and defiantly for democracy and human rights through even the most difficult times," said Harper, adding that Kaczynski's sudden death was a great loss to Poland, and the country's friends in Canada.
"On behalf of the government of Canada and all Canadians, I wish to express my deepest sympathy, and my sincere condolences, to the government and people of Poland on this very sad day," Harper said.
Governor General Michaelle Jean also expressed her sympathies.
"We wish to extend our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the deceased," she said in a statement.
"Our thoughts are with Canada's Polish community, which is in shock and which we know had great affection and admiration for President Kaczynski."
Jean called 60-year-old Kaczynski a "brave champion of freedom and patriotic pride."
"President Kaczynski had devoted all of his energy to serving his people," she said.
News of the crash has prompted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to cancel a scheduled visit to the Ottawa Valley region next week.
The incident has devastated the upper echelons of Poland's political and military establishments.
On board were the army chief of staff, the navy chief commander, and heads of the air and land forces.
Also killed were the national bank president, deputy foreign minister, army chaplain, head of the National Security Office, deputy parliament speaker, Olympic Committee head, civil rights commissioner and at least two presidential aides and three legislators, the Polish Foreign Ministry said.
Poland has long discussed replacing the planes that carry the country's leaders but said they lacked the funds.
The presidential plane, a 26-year-old Russian-built Tupolev, was fully overhauled in December and was certainly flightworthy, the general director of the Aviakor aviation maintenance plant in Samara, Russia told television channel Rossiya-24.
An eyewitness said the plane tilted to the left before crashing. Two loud explosions were heard as the aircraft plummeted to the ground.