Canadians fleeing violent protests in Libya
Posted Feb 22, 2011 8:07 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
There are unconfirmed reports that the streets of Tripoli, the capital of Libya, are littered with bodies following bloody clashes between civilians and the military.
The UN Security Council will debate the crisis in a Tuesday meeting.
The violent protests have also put upward pressure on the world price of oil.
As many as 1,000 Canadians live and work in Libya, although the federal government has no plans so far to airlift those people to safety.
A few weeks ago Ottawa airlifted Canadians out of Egypt, which was rocked by protests that eventually toppled leader Hosni Mubarak.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is refusing to step down and also denies reports that he had already fled the country.
Shafei Shafei lives in Airdrie and is a member of the Libyan opposition.
Shafei tells 660News with the country’s main airport now under government control, flights to freedom won’t be happening anytime soon.
He says most people looking to escape the bloodshed will likely have to drive their way to freedom.
Energy companies like Suncor, Shell Canada and SNC-Lavalin are all working on contingency plans to get their workers out.
Gary Sutherland, who lives in Nova Scotia, says he got a call from his son Glen not long after the rig he was working on in the Sahara was attacked by rebels.
He says nobody was hurt and his boy and some of his other Suncor co-workers walked to another job site about six kilometres away.
