Animals being forced to pay the price of humans' wars -- official Canadian abandonment

[Guest guest]

[posted by Nadine Saunders on AnimalsCanada. nadinemsaunders]

 

The following article tells us that Canadians being evacutated from

Lebanon will not be allowed to take pets (regardless of size). Letters

to the editor can be sent at http://tinyurl.com/85bvu

 

National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post) (Canada)

July 18, 2006 Tuesday

NEWS; Pg. A2

 

Ottawa hires cruise ships for evacuation: Cyprus, then home by air:

As many as 50,000 Canadians believed to be in Lebanon

 

Juliet O'Neill, CanWest News Service

 

OTTAWA - The Conservative government plans to evacuate at least 20,000

-- and as many as 50,000 -- Canadians from Lebanon to Cyprus by cruise

ships, starting tomorrow, authorities said yesterday.

 

Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said the government has

chartered six cruise ships, each with a capacity of 600 to 900

passengers, to start picking up Canadians at the port of Beirut as of

midday. They will ferry evacuees back and forth for at least three

days, possibly more.

 

The government doesn't know how many Canadians want out, but the

number of those registered with the government has doubled to about

25,000 in the past few days and about 50,000 are believed to be in the

country. Mr. MacKay estimated a third of them are in the wartorn

south.

 

" The intensity right now of the bombing is such that to send people

there, even to send buses or armoured cars, we don't have that

equipment on the ground, " he said.

 

A 16-member Canadian military contingency planning assistance team

will oversee the evacuation at each end, ensuring orderly boarding of

passengers based on a priority system that puts ill, injured or

elderly people and women and children first, he said. Passengers will

be allowed minimal luggage and no pets.

 

The plan is to have chartered flights at an airport in Cyprus to fly

people back to Canada, Mr. MacKay said, although that part is still a

bit sketchy and depends on numbers of people and the capacity of the

airport.

 

For now, Canada has chartered three planes.

 

" Once they're on the boat, there will be time to decide whether the

flights have to take off right away, whether there might have to be an

overnight. All of those logistical plans will be worked out by the

teams on the ground, " Mr. McKay said.

 

Responding to a string of weekend reports in which Canadians

complained they could not find out about evacuation or about their

loved ones, Mr. MacKay defended the government's communication system.

He said wait times for those calling had been reduced to five minutes,

that 40 more personnel were en route to Lebanon to help the embassy

and that more than 100 " wardens " -- Canadians who live in Lebanon --

would help ensure communication among Canadians within the country.

 

Mr. MacKay rejected criticism that Canadians have had to wait too long

to get in touch with the embassy or Foreign Affairs and that

evacuation plans have lagged behind other countries and might not work

smoothly. He said it's easy to criticize from the sidelines, but that

simply fuels insecurity, frustration and anger.

 

The United States is planning to evacuate several thousands of its

citizens from Lebanon, while groups ranging from a few dozen to

several hundred have already been rescued -- mostly overland to Syria

-- by Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, Denmark and Germany.

 

Officials in Jordan say about 1,200 people fleeing Lebanon through

Syria have been arriving daily. Syria puts the number of evacuees

crossing its border at about 100,000.

 

Raymonde Falco, Liberal citizenship and immigration critic, questioned

why Canada had no evacuation underway while other countries were

taking their citizens to safety.

 

Francine Lalone, Bloc Quebecois foreign affairs critic, said the

government's laxity in assembling an evacuation plan had deepened the

anguish of Canadians stranded in Lebanon.

 

New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton expressed condolences to the

El-Akhras family of Montreal, eight of whose members, including four

young children, were killed when a bomb hit a house on Sunday in the

southern Lebanese town of Aitaroun.

 

(END OF NATIONAL POST ARTICLE)

 

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