TORONTO

The story of Libya’s recent past can be broadly summarized in three words: blood, sweat and fears.

The blood was spilt in vast quantities to rid the country of Colonel Gaddafi’s tyrannical regime.

The sweat has come in the slow and ongoing process of rebuilding a shattered nation.

The fears are held almost universally for the future of a now free people who want to face the future with confidence.

This is where Canada comes in.

Basit Igtet is the president of the Independent Libya Foundation. He is keenly aware of the role played by Canada in the liberation of his homeland.

The New York-based businessman says Libyans are only now coming to grips with life after Colonel Gaddafi but that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten the debt they owe Canada or the service personnel who willingly went in harm’s way.

RCAF CF-18 Hornets alone conducted 10 per cent of NATO sorties in Libya at the height of the fighting. At sea, HMCS Charlottetown patrolled offshore ready to provide naval gunfire support. The frigate was attacked by shore-based artillery on May 12, the first time since the Korean War that a Canadian warship had come under fire.

“Libyans look at Canada like another version of Switzerland” Mr. Igtet told The Toronto Sun. “It is a large, stable, fully-fledged democracy that is happy to act in the name of freedom.

“The Canadian navy and air force provided real help when the uprising against Colonel Gaddafi was at its height. Libya would not be where it is today - free - without that direct support.”

It is exactly a year since the start of Colonel Gaddafi’s overthrow when his troops attacked the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. By October the fight was over and Libya joined Tunisia and Egypt in the `Arab spring.’

Now Mr. Igtet, who was born in Benghazi, is reaching out to Canadians again, but this is neither a call to arms or plea for money.

He says Libya has a democracy deficit; it lacks the political structures that are the basis of a fair society built on the rule of law.

“We don’t need money, we have oil reserves, but we do have a whole generation of people who have never lived in an a democratic society.

“They have no experience of open and fair systems of justice, economic governance or even an electoral system. We start from scratch.”

For 42 years Libyans lived in a horrific regime led by Gaddafi, stamping down on civil society, ruthlessly crushing dissidents and executing his rivals. His terror extended internationally, with Gaddafi believed by former political allies to have personally ordered the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

That was then and this is now.

In four months Libya’s interim government hopes to hold the first free and open elections for almost half a century.

As a practical step to achieving that ambitious goal, Mr. Igtet will Monday announce the establishment of the Canadian Libyan Chamber of Commerce. It is a national body designed to tap the skills of governance that many Canadians might take for granted.

If nothing else, it can help provide models for a country trying to evolve from tyranny to democracy.

Although intended to work hand-in-hand with the business community, Mr. Igtet, a former international airline pilot, hopes the appeal will be broader than shared commercial interests.

“Libya needs a robust human rights regime – that is something Canada has long been a world leader in. We need a strong, independent judiciary and a separation of powers.

“At a government level, relations between Ottawa and Tripoli are still being re-established. At the person-to-person level, I think Libyans can look with hope to Canada to be at our side as we face the future.”

Canada lifted its sanctions against Libya and re-opened its embassy in Tripoli last September.

This was followed by the visit of Foreign Minister John Baird who flew to the Libyan capital with executives from Montreal engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, Alberta oil giant Suncor and Calgary-based pipeline-technology firm Pure Technologies.

That same month saw Mr. Igtet appointed as Special Envoy to the Libyan Transitional National Council for humanitarian aid for the area of the Americas. The council has been recognised by Ottawa as the legitimate voice of Libya ahead of the elections.

Now Mr. Igtet hopes that people of goodwill on both sides can share in a new spirit of co-operation and rebuild the human capital of his shattered homeland.

The alternative – a regressive slide into tribal rivalries - just doesn’t bear thinking about.