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In fact, Canada swiftly joined efforts in early 2011 to help “liberate” the Libyan people. Seven CF-18 fighter jets, two Aurora patrol aircraft, two Polaris aircraft and one Hercules soon arrived in the region. Meanwhile, at sea a Canadian frigate escorted allied shipping and intercepted unknown vessels. To top things off, the entire NATO operation was commanded, almost from the outset, by a Canadian.

In June 2011, then Foreign Minister John Baird confidently predicted that the Libyan National Transitional Council “couldn’t be any worse than Colonel Gadhafi.” Perhaps not, but everyone else in Libya was. And it’s not like the potential consequences of intervening in Libya were an unknown. As debate on Resolution 1973 unfolded in New York in March 2011, Brazil noted that the use of force “may have the unintended effect of exacerbating tensions on the ground and causing more harm than good to the very same civilians we are committed to protecting.” If that wasn’t enough, Canada’s military intelligence service had also warned the government that Libya would disintegrate if the Gadhafi regime was removed. But for a government keen to be seen “punching above its weight” such warnings were inconvenient and disregarded.

Of course, the truth today is exactly as the Brazilians and our military predicated. For human traffickers and migrants from across Africa and the Middle East, all roads now lead to the Libyan coast. Border posts are deserted and the coastline open. In 2013, according to the Italian Coast Guard, 27,000 migrants were rescued at sea after setting sail from Libya. In 2014, this number rose to 141,000. As for 2015, the UN International Maritime Organisation recently warned that this number could climb as high as 500,000. Furthermore, according to the International Organization for Migration, approximately 1,750 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean so far this year, compared to some 60 during the same period in 2014.