Libya (2011)

Canada played a significant role in the 2011 NATO attack on Libya. Not only was the Commander of the NATO military mission to Libya Canadian Lt.-Gen. Charles Bouchard; but Canada’s air, naval, and special forces were also deployed to support the military intervention.

In response to the situation in Libya, the UN Security Council adopted Resolutions 1970 and 1973. Resolution 1970 (adopted on February 26, 2011) imposed an arms embargo on Libya, and Resolution 1973 (adopted on March 17, 2011) authorized a no-fly zone over Libya but explicitly forbade “a foreign occupation force of any form on any part of Libyan territory” and demanded “a complete end to violence and all attacks against, and abuses of, civilians.”

Canada contravened these UN Resolutions, and thus international law, by selling drones to Libyan rebels, and participating in NATO’s military efforts, which dispatched troops and expanded bombing campaigns far beyond protecting civilians. Under Operation Mobile (March 21, 2011 - November 1, 2011), Canada dispatched fourteen Royal Canadian Airforce aircrafts that participated in NATO’s air strikes, bombing campaigns, propaganda broadcasts, and surveillance; and two Royal Canadian frigates that patrolled the Libyan coast and enforced NATO’s naval blockade. The Canadian air and naval machinery used in Operation Mobile were allegedly operated by the Joint Task Force 2, Canada’s elite special forces unit.

The NATO bombing campaign was justified based on exaggerations and outright lies about the Gaddafi regime’s human rights violations. In the lead-up to the NATO intervention, the rebels accused Gaddafi’s forces of mass systematic rape, a charge repeated by Western media and politicians. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was still repeating the mass rape justification for bombing Libya months after Gaddafi was killed. But did Gaddafi’s forces engage in mass rape? According to a UN Human Rights Council report and an article from the Independent citing Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser Donatella Rovera (who was in Libya for three months after the start of the uprising) and Human Rights Watch’s Executive Director of Women’s Human Rights Division Leisl Gerntholtz: No evidence of mass systematic rape could be found.

Another one of the main incidents that justified the intervention was the claim that on February 21, 2011, Libyan helicopters and fighter jets fired at and dropped bombs on civilians. Without any video proof Al Jazeera published these accusations, which were picked up by much of the Western media. This narrative extended to involve claims of potential genocide. During a high profile post-war tribute, Prime Minister Stephen Harper repeated a variation of this claim, stating that the Gaddafi regime was using police, army, and air forces against Libyan civilians who protested against him, calling Gaddafi’s alleged actions “an invitation to genocide.”

But was there actual evidence to support these accusations? Researchers from both the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Amnesty International could not find any evidence that Gaddafi’s forces fired on civilians from fighter jets or helicopters. In June 2011, the ICG explained: “There are grounds for questioning the more sensational reports that the regime was using its air force to slaughter demonstrators, let alone engaging in anything remotely warranting use of the term ‘genocide.’”

As a result of NATO’s military intervention, Gaddafi’s assassination, and the collapse of the Libyan regime, Libya has been transformed into a failed state divided into various warring factions, operated by hundreds of militias, and host to human slave markets.