Ex-envoy to Libya is posted to Morocco

OTTAWA — Former ambassador to Libya Sandra McCardell has been quietly named Canada’s next ambassador to Morocco.

The appointment comes five months after an internal review cleared McCardell of any potential conflict of interest related to her husband’s work with Montreal engineering firm SNC-Lavalin in Libya while she was ambassador there.

The review, conducted by two senior bureaucrats, found neither SNC-Lavalin nor McCardell’s husband benefitted from her position as ambassador, and that McCardell followed proper procedures in reporting her husband’s work with the company.

SNC-Lavalin has a number of projects in Morocco’s mining industry, but a government source said McCardell’s husband no longer works for the firm.

McCardell served as ambassador to Libya from July 2009 to March 2012, including a six-month period from February 2011 to August 2011 when the Canadian Embassy in Tripoli was closed as NATO helped rebel fighters topple Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi’s regime from power.

Her new position has not been officially announced by the Harper government, but was published on a federal government website on Thursday following a recent Cabinet decision.

Canada is currently negotiating a free-trade agreement with Morocco.