OTTAWA — Canada’s ambassador to Libya has left her post, but will likely emerge in another diplomatic role in another Arabic-speaking country, The Canadian Press has learned.
Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is standing behind Sandra McCardell, still widely viewed as a rising star in Canada’s foreign service, despite questions about a potential conflict of interest surrounding the business dealings of her husband.
In January, Baird assigned his deputy minister to conduct an internal conflict-of-interest review after he learned about the business connection of McCardell’s husband to the former regime of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
In February, the CBC reported that McCardell’s husband was hired by the Montreal engineering firm SNC-Lavalin to work as part of a military-civilian engineering unit with the Gadhafi regime.
“Ms. McCardell is the former ambassador to Libya and is currently waiting on her next assignment. Our charge d’affairs in Tripoli will continue to serve as the interim head of mission until a new ambassador is selected,” said Baird’s spokesman Chris Day.
“Minister Baird has been clear on his views of Ambassador McCardell’s great work in assuring the safety of Canadians on the ground in the lead up to the liberation of Libya.”
McCardell accompanied Baird to Tripoli for the official reopening of the Canadian Embassy last October.
The embassy had been shut down in February 2011 when the NATO-led bombing campaign began to protect Libyan civilians from Gadhafi’s forces.
Gadhafi was toppled from power in August and was still at large when Baird and McCardell reopened the embassy.
The former dictator was later captured and killed by one of the many militias that had taken up arms to fight his regime.
Senior government officials, who were not authorized to speak about McCardell’s case, said she has been back in Canada since November to undertake advanced language training in Arabic. The language training was part of a professional development plan that McCardell agreed to last summer.
It is expected McCardell will be reassigned to another country where those language skills can be put to use, sources say.
McCardell has also regularly disclosed her husband’s business activities to the Foreign Affairs Department to ensure she was not in breach of any ethics or values.
Sources say she received the proper assurances during her time in Tripoli. She assumed the ambassador’s post there in July 2009.
“This has nothing to do — zero — with the story that has been out there,” said a senior official. “This is not a statement on her performance.”