African Union President Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi is shown on the last working day of the G8 (Group of Eight) Summit in L'Aquila, Italy on July 10, 2009, before unveiling the plaque commemorating the earthquake in the main square of the Guardia di Finanza Inspectors' School where the Summit was held. (UPI Photo/Ettore Ferrari/G8Website) |
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ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi will make an unofficial one-day stop in Canada next week on his way back to the Mideast, the Canadian government said Thursday.
The office of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon will go to Newfoundland to meet with Gadhafi to express Canada's displeasure at the hero's welcome afforded the return of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
"It constituted an insult to all the victims who died, including Canadians," said Dimitri Soudas, the prime minister's spokesman.
Gadhafi is in New York this week for the United Nations General Assembly. He gave a 90-minute speech there Wednesday.
Cannon told Radio-Canada the federal government intends to be direct with Gadhafi.
"In no way shape or form does this government support terrorism, and we denounce it at every opportunity and that's what we will be doing," Cannon said.
Newfoundland and Labrador government officials say there will be no official welcome for Gadhafi.
St. John's Mayor Dennis O'Keefe says it was his understanding Gadhafi will be in the city with a delegation of 130 people.
"They are going to be dispersed around different hotels, and Col. Gadhafi would be looking for a separate site on which he wants to pitch a Bedouin tent," O'Keefe said.
