
Photo courtesy: PMO/Deb Ransom
Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, and Abdou Diouf, Secretary-General of La Francophonie, were in Ottawa Wednesday for their first meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. As my colleague Dominique La Haye explained in Le Journal de Quebec, the leaders were here to lobby to include concerns of smaller and more vulnerable nations on the G20 agenda.
Sharma and Diouf met with Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and Francophonie Minister Josee Verner at lunch time.
They were to meet Harper at 15:30 ET.
A press conference was scheduled with Sharma at 16:15, shortly before both Secretaries-General were expected at Rideau Hall for to meet with Governor General Michaelle Jean and her husband Jean-Daniel Lafond at 17:00.
At 16:40, reporters were still waiting for Sharma to arrive. Someone from protocol called the press gallery to say Sharma was lost and was waiting in the Rotunda (a floor above). But staff dispatched to find him came back empty handed. Minutes later, we were told the press conference was canceled.
Conspiracy theories circulated that Harper had kept the leaders longer so they would not meet with reporters.
Diouf’s last visit to Canada caused an embarrassing diplomatic incident after the former President of Senegal was subjected to a body-search at Toronto’s Pearson airport. There were no Canadian officials there to tell officers who he was.
This time, Catherine Loubier, Cannon’s spokeswoman, said there would be a person from protocol present for Diouf’s airport arrivals and departures to prevent a repeat of the 2006 incident.