Canada has joined the United Nations and a number of Western countries in slapping sanctions against Libya following the deadly crackdown on protesters by the regime of Moammar Gadhafi.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the sanctions on Sunday, while calling on Mr. Gadhafi to step down.
"It is clear that the only acceptable course of action for him is to halt the bloodshed and to immediately vacate his position and his authority," Mr. Harper said in a televised statement.
The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Saturday to impose an arms embargo on Libya and urged UN member countries to freeze the assets of Mr. Gadhafi, four of his sons and a daughter.
The council also backed a travel ban on the Gadhafi family and close associates, including leaders of the revolutionary committees accused of much of the violence against regime opponents.
Mr. Harper said Canada will go beyond the UN resolution.
"Our government will impose an asset freeze on, and a prohibition of financial transactions with the government of Libya, its institutions and agencies, including the Libyan Central Bank.
"These actions will help restrict the movement of, and access to money and weapons for those responsible for the violence against the Libyan people."
The 192-member UN General Assembly is meeting Tuesday to vote on a UN Human Rights Council recommendation to suspend Libya from the world organization's top human rights body.
Mr. Harper said Mr. Gadhafi has betrayed his own people.
"A government's first and most fundamental responsibility is to protect the safety and security of its citizens. Mr. Gadhafi has bluntly violated this most basic trust. Far from protecting the Libyan people against peril, he is the root cause of the dangers they face."
The prime minister also announced that a second C-17 aircraft has arrived in Malta, ready to help evacuate Canadians still stranded in Libya. Two C-130 Hercules aircraft will be sent to create "more flexible capacity," Mr. Harper said.
"The Canadian Armed Forces in co-ordination with our allies will deploy these aircraft as circumstances permit."
About 100 Canadians are believed to still be in Libya, most of them oil workers.
Efforts continued all weekend to contact those Canadians, Mr. Harper said.
"The emergency operation centre of the department of foreign affairs is continuing to contact registered Canadians by phone, where possible, regarding opportunities to leave the country by any possible means."
A Canadian Forces C-17 aircraft evacuated 46 people including its diplomatic staff from Libya on Saturday.
The Conservative government has faced criticism that it has not responded quickly enough to the needs of stranded Canadians.
Other countries engaged their military to evacuate their citizens from multiple locations in Libya, including the eastern desert, where many of the oil rigs are located.
The British military, including members of its special forces, used a Hercules to fly under the Libyan radar and rescue 150 Britons and foreign nationals in a desert area on Sunday. The British government said one of the RAF Hercules aircraft appeared to have suffered minor damage from small arms fire.
Germany said two military planes had evacuated 132 people also from the desert during a secret military mission on Saturday, landing on a private runway belonging to the Wintershall AG company.