An Egyptian-Libyan protester shouts during a demonstration against Moammar Gadhafi's continued rule in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Feb. 25, 2011.Kevin Frayer/The Associated Press
Canada is preparing a series of sanctions against the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and will impose them unilaterally if the UN doesn't act, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.
After days when he has faced mounting criticism for being slow to press action against the regime, Mr. Harper delivered a far more forceful condemnation Friday night, calling the Gadhafi regime's actions "atrocities," and insisting the world must hold those responsible for them accountable, including referring them to the International Criminal Court.
The move to a sharper tone came on a day of rising international calls to impose sanctions led by European leaders and the United States, where the White House announced plans to impose unspecified unilateral sanctions.
Mr. Harper, who was cool to pressing Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to step down amid protests last month, is now adopting a far stronger tone to a Libyan leader viewed by many in the West as a semi-reformed pariah even before the crisis. Mr. Gadhafi has now unleashed attacks by armed forces and foreign mercenaries against protesters.
"The international community must send a very clear message. The killing of innocent civilians, the citizens of its own country, constitutes a gross violation of human rights and must carry serious consequences," Mr. Harper said Friday night.
"I have instructed our officials to prepare a full range of sanctions against the Libyan regime, both in collaboration with our international partners, or unilaterally if necessary. No options have been ruled out."
There was in Mr. Harper's words none of the sweeping expressions of solidarity with Libyan protesters expressed by other leaders, such as U.S. President Barack Obama, who pledged to stand by them in their quest for universal rights. Mr. Obama asserted that "their dignity cannot be denied."
In months of protests in the region, Mr. Harper's government has stressed stability, and with Egypt, security for Israel. Now, in Libya, he focused on responding to the bloody repression of a rogue regime.
The sanctions now being prepared - an arms embargo, asset freezes and measures against key regime figures - are unlikely to have a rapid effect on pressuring Mr. Gadhafi. Mr. Harper's aides insisted that the Prime Minister's assertion that nothing has been ruled out included the possibility of more dramatic next steps, including supporting the enforcement of a no-fly zone that would ground the Libyan air force.
"The situation requires a rapid response," said NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar, arguing that a no-fly zone would also prevent the Gadhafi regime from flying in more foreign mercenaries. "We should tighten the noose around this regime's neck."
Libyan-Canadians, appealing for support from the broader Arab community and other Canadians, have organized protests in eight cities for Saturday, not only against the Gadhafi regime, but to demand that Mr. Harper's government ratchet up international pressure for things like the no-fly zone.
It's not yet clear just how willing Mr. Harper will be to press for those more forceful measures to hinder Mr. Gadhafi's actions quickly, although foreign ministers from several countries, including Canada's Lawrence Cannon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are expected to discuss the options at a meeting in Geneva on Monday.
Amid a scramble to evacuate Canadians, the Harper government has been moving to write foreign policy on the fly, as it has done in weeks of unrest across the region, notably in Tunisia, then Egypt and now Libya.
On Thursday, Mr. Cannon, arriving on an overnight flight, shuttled across Rome to meet Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini before moving into a Canadian embassy office to make calls to Britain's William Hague and France's Michéle Alliot-Marie. On Friday, in Kuwait, he spoke by phone to Ms. Clinton.
The response was in part delayed by efforts to evacuate Canadians, and concerns that pushing too hard could complicate the situation. But the Harper government has also been, government sources insist, waiting for some consensus to emerge among allies about which measures would work to pressure Mr. Gadhafi, and who would step up to make them stick.
The idea of a military intervention with a no-fly zone requires countries with fighter jets to enforce it, but the optics of former colonial powers such as Italy and France in military confrontation with Libyans raises concerns it could backfire; unilateral enforcement by the United States, Mr. Gadhafi's long-time "imperialist" adversary, raised similar concerns. NATO's chief said the alliance would need a UN mandate to intervene, and Egypt, the neighbour with a big military, has tens of thousands of nationals in Libya and its own turmoil and transition.
Other ideas are being circulated among Western countries, according to government sources, including humanitarian relief missions to opposition-controlled regions of Libya, possibly with some troops for protection.
But with sanctions and the threat of more, Mr. Harper's tone on Libya already stands in marked contrast to his government's response to Egypt, where the regime's reaction to protests was less bloody - and which raised fears inside the Harper government that unpredictable change in strategic power in the region could endanger Mideast peace.
But the bloodshed in Libya, unleashed by a rogue leader in a nation that is already hostile to Israel and less crucial to regional peace, has prompted Mr. Harper to take a more forceful stand.
Campbell Clark