Joly says about 45,000 Canadians in Lebanon; she's concerned about pager explosions

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says close to 45,000 Canadians are in Lebanon, months after warning there is no guarantee Ottawa can evacuate them if the situation deteriorates further.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says close to 45,000 Canadians are in Lebanon, months after warning there is no guarantee Ottawa can evacuate them if the situation deteriorates further.

She is also expressing concern that attacks like exploding pagers are only making the situation worse.

"My message to Canadians who even think of going to Lebanon is don't go, and I've been saying that for months," she told reporters Friday in Toronto.

Since the brutal Hamas attack on Israel last October prompted Israel to bomb Gaza, Hezbollah militants have been shooting rockets at northern Israel. That has caused communities near the border to evacuate, and Israel to strike both civilian and Hezbollah infrastructure.

By late last October, Joly started urging Canadians to leave Lebanon, saying that the military was assessing how to conduct a possible evacuation of citizens if needed.

The government has never been clear on how many people may need to be evacuated, only stating the number of individuals who had proactively registered with Global Affairs Canada. That stood at around 21,400 people in late July, with Ottawa cautioning many have not registered.

At that point, Joly had warned that "the situation on the ground may not allow us to help you" if things get worse. On Friday, she specified how many people could end up trapped.