Under Trudeau, Canada is Saudi Arabia The Most Dedicated Armistice

In 2014, the Conservative government of Canada brokered the sale of hundreds of light armored vehicles (LAVs), manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada (GDLS-C), to the Saudi National Guard. Worth $ 14 billion, this arms deal was the largest in Canadian history.

While the Conservative government may have orchestrated the deal, it was the Liberals who actually ignited arms shipments. Government documents published in April 2016 show that Trudeaus Minister of Foreign Affairs Stphane Dion formally approved the export of LAVs for more than four months after Liberals took power. The memorandum describes Saudi Arabia, a state that uses mass executions as one means of political repression, as a key partner for Canada and a regional leader promoting regional security and stability.

Following the assassination of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in October 2018, Canada froze arms exports to Saudi Arabia. However, this pause only touched new export permits. He did not prevent any of the LAVs that had already received permit approvals from leaving Canadian soil. In fact, exports even increased by 111 percent during this period of approximately one and a half years.

During this time, Canada acceded to Arms Trade Treaty, the first internationally binding framework to control the trade and transfer of conventional weapons. As a result, arming Canada of states that could misuse Canadian weapons became a violation of international law (although doing so was already a violation of Canadian law)

But nothing changed in practice. An investigation ordered by the Canadian government after Khashoggi’s assassination determined that the exported weapons presented there is no substantial risk being used in violation of international humanitarian law, facilitating gender-based violence, or being subject to the illegal transfer of a weapons system from the specified end-use or end-user. Despite clear evidence to counter these politically appropriate findings, exports to the Saudis continued.

Saudi Arabia provided written assurances that Canadian LAVs would be used for internal security purposes only. Por ka numerous photos and videos of these LAVs being diverted to the conflict in Yemen. The diversion is illegal under Canadian and international law, and awareness of the diversion requires Canadian officials to revoke any further export approval to the infringing party.

Canada has also sold other weapons to the Saudis, including thousands of sniper rifles made by Winnipeg. They have been too illegally diverted, in this case for the Saudi government-linked military forces of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has long had an insatiable appetite for Western armaments. According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), between 201519, was the largest arms importer in the world, with the United States serving as their largest supplier.

Since the start of the war in Yemen and the assassination of Khashoggi, a number of European countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Belgium and the Netherlands have either reduced or revoked their arms exports to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Arab, an ally of the Saudi coalition in Yemen.

The new US administration has now joined them. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, at his first press conference on January 27, announced a blockade of arms sales in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates worth tens of billions of dollars.

This freezing of arms represents a welcome reversal of the Trump administration’s policy. The policy change has come largely due to years of lobbying by gun control advocates and grassroots organizations, with support from the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.

Two days after the announcement of Blinkens, Italy completed its export of intelligence bombs for the Saudi-led coalition. In early February, the European Parliament repeated her call for member states to adopt an EU-wide arms ban for coalition members.

But we can not be sure that the winds of change will have a lasting effect. Any long-term freeze on U.S. arms exports to Saudi Arabia seems impossible at this point. The current suspension as part of a review is implied temporarily.

Moreover, the freeze does not include weapons that have already received approval but have not yet left the United States. These weapons can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and they are still likely to get their way to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

It is also worth noting that the freeze only applies to an unspecified category of relevant weapons. This seems to cover only the material that facilitates air strikes and not many other American weapons that have been flooded in Yemen.

In June 2020, Canada was unsuccessful in his offer for a seat on the UN Security Council. Many commentators saw Canada increasing arms sales to Saudi Arabia as a clear reason for this failure.

In September 2020, the UN Group of Distinguished Experts on Yemen the same panel that identified US weapons as a direct incitement to Canada accused of fighting for helping to perpetuate the conflict by providing weapons to the Saudis. Only four other countries have earned this distinction.

December 2020 was the first time a Liberal Canadian member of Parliament deviated from the party line and called for an end to arms exports to Saudi Arabia. Citing the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, MP Adam Vaughan sentenced providing all weapons in the region.

In early February this year, the leader of Canada’s New Left-wing Democratic Party, Jagmeet Singh, once again called on the Canadian government to ban LAV exports to Saudi Arabia: There is a time when clear human rights violations committed by a country make it so we can not sell them weapons. To preserve the jobs of GDLS-C workers, Singh urged the government to purchase LAV for the Canadian Armed Forces.

Gun sales in Canada are nothing new as the country has been selling guns for decades. What it’s new is the staggering volume of such exports and the huge role they play in some of today’s most deadly conflicts. The Trudeau government has exported more weapons to states charged with war crimes than any other Canadian government registered publicly.

If the United States, where the term military-industrial complex was coined, is willing to limit its human rights arms exports, its northern neighbor should be willing to do the same. Until that happens, Canada’s self-presentation as a mediator of peace and a beacon of progressive values ​​will be a comforting fantasy, out of hand from the rest of the world.