January 7, 2005 (4:50 p.m. EST)
No. 1

MINISTER PETTIGREW’S RESPONSE TO TORONTO STAR EDITORIAL ON MISSING CANADIANS IN ASIA

Minister of Foreign Affairs Pierre Pettigrew wrote to the Editor of The Toronto Star today in response to the editorial entitled “Ottawa should list missing in Asia.” The text of the Minister’s letter is below.

I am writing in response to the editorial published in yesterday’s edition of your newspaper, “Ottawa should list missing in Asia.” The editorial is misleading as it does not provide an accurate representation of the work of officials of Foreign Affairs Canada at home and abroad in providing information, service and support to the thousands of Canadians and their families directly affected by the tsunami.

From the very first day of the crisis, officers at the Foreign Affairs Operations Centre have handled over 50,000 calls from family and friends of Canadians believed to have been travelling in Asia on December 26. Over 3,000 individual files were opened on a complex computer database, incorporating information from sources ranging from family and friends to airlines, tour operators, hotels and the Government of Thailand. As more information on each of these cases was integrated and assessed, and as the holiday period came to an end, many of these files were closed.

As of January 5, there were 146 Canadians we considered to be “missing,” and whose details were provided to the RCMP and Interpol for their follow-up as part of the international effort to determine the fate of thousands of individuals not accounted for since December 26. This number could go up in the coming days and weeks. It may also come down. The key point, however, is that this list of “missing” individuals is NOT the list published by your newspaper earlier this week.

Throughout this difficult and traumatic ordeal, officials of Foreign Affairs, both those at Headquarters in Ottawa and overseas in the affected countries, have exercised compassion and discretion. They have been in repeated contact with the next of kin and families of those affected, and have been scrupulous in the guardianship of the information placed in their trust.

It is for this reason that the Prime Minister has directed that no list of the names of those missing be made public. I myself, as well as officials, have heard from Canadians deeply distressed by the publication of information on those close to them. The Government will provide regular updated information of the numbers of missing Canadians for as long as the situation remains unresolved.

Many of those most affected are still praying and hoping. We will, at all times, respect their personal wishes to do so in private and outside the glare of media publicity.

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For further information, media representatives may contact:

Sébastien Théberge
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
(613) 995-1851

Media Relations Office
Foreign Affairs Canada
(613) 995-1874
http://www.international.gc.ca