Canada sending up to $5M in humanitarian aid to Lebanon after Beirut explosion

Canada will provide up to $5 million in humanitarian assistance to help Lebanon and its people recover from the devastating explosion in Beirut's port.

An initial $1.5 million of that funding will go to the Lebanese Red Cross to provide emergency medical services, shelter and food for those affected.

In an interview with CBC News, International Development Minister Karina Gould said the money represents Canada's initial commitment and that it could grow in the coming days and weeks as the scale of the disaster becomes more clear.

"This is about saving lives in the next 48 hours and then making sure that people have access to emergency shelter, food, health care and medicine," Gould said.

The explosion happened Tuesday when 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical used in fertilizers, which had been stored for years at the port, ignited, sending shock waves across the Lebanese capital. 

Around 135 people died, about 5,000 were injured and another 300,000 people have been left without a place to live. Hospitals have been overwhelmed by the injured.

WATCH | Karina Gould on Canada's aid package to Lebanon:

International development minister on Canada's $5M in aid to Lebanon

4 years ago

Duration 9:04

Karina Gould says $1.5 million will be sent immediately to the Lebanese Red Cross, and another $3.5 million will follow

Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud told Al Hadath TV that collective economic losses due to the blast might reach $13 billion to $20 billion, saying the estimate included both direct and indirect losses related to business.

Other countries have also mobilized to provide help. Germany has dispatched dozens of search and rescue specialists to help find survivors trapped beneath rubble while Russia sent a plane carrying relief teams, doctors and medical equipment.

France is sending two planes with aid and 55 workers, including disaster response experts, emergency nurses, doctors and firefighters.

Gould said it's possible Canada may provide support in other forms other than humanitarian funding, but wouldn't say whether Canada's disaster response team, DART, will be mobilized.

"Nothing is off the table right now in terms of Canada's response," she said. "We want to make sure that what we're sending is indeed what is needed."

Lebanese government under fire

Experts say the need for rapid assistance and the complexities of Lebanon's political system — which is characterized by widespread corruption, sectarianism and a weak state — mean that non-governmental organizations like the Red Cross are best placed to provide immediate help.

"There are a lot of local organizations — some small, some really large — who have the capacity to implement significant humanitarian assistance programs and who have the capacity to really help the population with no political manoeuvring, with no political consequences," said Ruby Dagher, an international development professor at the University of Ottawa who immigrated to Canada from Lebanon.

"We should look at those first for the humanitarian assistance before we turn our attention to working through the government."

Public anger against the Lebanese government was already at historic highs after months of sustained protests amid a long-running financial crisis intensified by the coronavirus pandemic. That anger has only grown since it emerged that the highly explosive fertilizer that caused Tuesday's explosion had been stored at Beirut's port for six years while port officials did nothing about it.

Lama Mourad, a professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, said any aid provided through the Lebanese government will help legitimize a ruling class that has lost the trust of its people.

"[The government of Canada would] be effectively supporting a government that has no legitimacy in the eyes of citizens," Mourad said. "Giving money to this government or any of the ruling elite... will only serve to support and strengthen their power, rather than necessarily go to the people who need it most."

Rex Brynen, a political scientist at McGill University, said after the immediate humanitarian crisis is over, Canada could play a role in strengthening the capacity of the Lebanese government. 

He cited the possible negligence at the Beirut port as a sign that the Lebanese state has a regulatory management problem at the port.

"That's an issue which in the longer term needs to be addressed in Lebanon and outside partners can play a role in trying to strengthen government capacity," Brynen said.