MacKay Defends Tories' Handling Of Mideast File

Pointing out that "Canada has participated in multilateral efforts to end the violence," MacKay repeated the Conservative government's position that any solution for finding peace must come from within the Middle East. "There has to be a ceasefire," he added. "Lebanon and Israel have suffered enough. "The killing has to stop." But any ceasefire reached must be a lasting one, he told the committee. Opposition MPs questioned why Canada was not giving its support for a ceasefire right away. "Why are you not asking for an immediate ceasefire?" asked Bloc Québécois MP Francine Lalonde. "It's not enough to just say the words," MacKay answered. "There has to be a plan." In a testy exchange with Liberal MP Dan McTeague, MacKay defended his own handling of the crisis, particularly when it first began. "Where were you for the first four days of this crisis?" McTeague asked, referring to MacKay's initial lack of visibility. "I was on the job," MacKay shot back. "You may have been on TV, but I was meeting with officials." MacKay said Canadian officials dealt with thousands of phone calls and e-mails as Canadians tried to leave Lebanon over the past three weeks. "Canadian officials in Lebanon, Israel and across the Middle East and in Ottawa were mobilized to respond as efficiently and as effectively as possible," MacKay said. http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/08/01/ottawa-mideast.html [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 3, 2006]

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