Shelburne Mountie heading to Lebanon

By Greg Bennett

The Coast Guard

NovaNewsNow.com

The head of Shelburne’s RCMP Detachment is leaving for Lebanon at the end of the month as part of a three-month investigative mission for the United Nations.

Sgt. Barry MacLellan was picked as one of five RCMP officers from across the country for the mission probing the 2005 assassination of Lebanon’s former president Rafik Hariri. He and the other Mounties will join police officers from around the world who have been assisting the UN in the investigation.

“Other than that I don’t know a whole lot about what we’ll be doing,” he said. “I’ll be better briefed when I go to Ottawa on the 25th.”

While acknowledging that there will be an element of danger with the deployment, Sgt. MacLellan says that the area of Beirut the team is working in is relatively safe.

He has served with the RCMP for 29 years said he applied for the mission for the experience.

In recent years, RCMP officers have served in hotspots around the world including Haiti, Afghanistan and areas of Africa. Sgt. MacLellan said this is his first major deployment outside Canada.

“I’m looking forward to it and if all goes well I’ll be back in time to put up the Christmas decorations,” he said.

Sgt. MacLellan has served with the Barrington RCMP Detachment as well as the Integrated Border Enforcement Team during his 16-year stay in Shelburne County.

Lebanon has been a troubled spot for many years marred by a 15-year civil war and more recently a war between Israel and Hezbollah and assassinations of anti-Syrian politicians.

Just last week more than a dozen people, including a group of Lebanese soldiers were killed by a bomb carried aboard a bus in Tripoli, a city in northern Lebanon.