Canada's ambassador to Libya, whose spouse had ties to a joint venture linked with the Gadhafi family and SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (SNC.T), has left her post and is awaiting reassignment in Ottawa, a spokesman for the country's foreign minister said Wednesday.
Chris Day, spokesman for Foreign Minister John Baird, said Canada's charge d'affaires in Tripoli will be in charge of the Canadian embassy until a replacement for Sandra McCardell is named. He declined further comment.
McCardell's spouse, Edis Zagorac, had been hired to work in 2009 as part of a military-civilian engineering unit formed by Montreal's SNC-Lavalin and a son of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, according to reports in The Globe and Mail newspaper.
Baird has asked government officials to conduct a review to ensure McCardell followed the rules under the foreign department's guidelines.
SNC-Lavalin's activities in Libya have come under scrutiny. Two former senior SNC-Lavalin executives connected to work in Libya have left the company, although the company hasn't said why.
(Source: Wall Street Journal)
