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Canada Is 13th Largest Arms Dealer in the World
August 1, 2009 - 2:33am
Canada is 13th Largest Arms Dealer in the World
http://embassymag.ca/page/view/dealer-7-29-2009
"Canada is the thirteenth largest arms dealer in the world and one that makes hundreds of millions of dollars each year selling armoured vehicles, aircraft parts and high tech gizmos to customers around the world.."
It seems that NATO allies purchase most of the equipment though. I'm a little uncomfortable with supplying Saudi Arabia. I worry that some of these weapons might end up in the wrong hands.
Are there "right hands" for weapons?
Yes, Sean, when white folks have weapons they are benign instruments of democracy. Didn't you read the handbook?
Only 13th? Our high tech industries are capable of much better. This position should improve as Canada's aerospace industry shows its mettle. Canada's exports consist mostly of parts and software for high end programs that provide well paying techie jobs.
Sad though isn't it-- since everybody uses them for the purpose for which they were made.
Usually wrong hands implies that some do not use the thing properly.
Well maybe now that that all the new contracts are coming out to save us in the recession, we will move from 13 up.
Seeing some people all excited for a war economy is pretty sickening.
" I worry that some of these weapons might end up in the wrong hands. "
LOL. The Saudi government (ie multi-generational dictatorship) is the wrong hands.
It's hysterical how Western media blasts Venezuela for being non-democratic, but nobody has any problems selling weapons to a country like Saudi Arabia.
Now and then the Israeli regime objects to arms sales to Saudi Arabia but then the Americans intervene and the client states play nice.
The members of CAW locals 510 (Pratt and Whitney), 112 (Bombardier/de Havilland) and 27 (General Dynamics), among many others, will be happy.
Canadians like it that Canada participates in the global arms trade and then make comments like we are "Peacekeepers".
One great source of Canadian pride in hypocrisy is the supply of Napalm to US forces during the Vietnam war while denouncing that war at the same time.
In the arms game, it is the end user who loses, as when a weapon is used, it is generally destroyed. The game is highly profitable for the manufacturers.
Just remember, if you are selling arms to both sides, make sure that the winner pays the loser's bills at the end.
That way, you can't lose!
It's my understanding that the arms industry/trade is more profitable than the drug trade (legal or illegal, take your pick). When people have a financial incentive to promote war, everyone is in danger. Hence the need, in my view, to bring to an end a system that allows this to happen as a routine matter.
But I'm a socialist all full of anti-capitalist prejudices.
But first make sure of course that the war is as drawn out as possible.
How's that work anyway, I'd imagine arms sales for belligerents are paid up front, mostly.
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http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/questions_and_answers/faq7/faq7.html
Treaty Negotiator Bounced For Being 'Too Tough, Aggressive'
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Treaty+negotiator+bounced+being+tough+...
"Canada's lead weapons treaty negotiator has been removed from his post after American negotiators complained he was 'too tough and aggressive' on behalf of Canada in disarmament talks.."
If only Canada could be more like Sweden - the social-democratic paradise - we could make it into the top ten arms sellers in the world.
I think they might be under-estimating just how much Canadian companies contribute to Pentagon capitalism though. We might not make so many weapons for sale here, but Canadian firms send a lot of sophisticated weapons parts and components to the states for use in everything from patriot missiles to planes and all manner of high tech stupidity. And I believe a lot of it does not show up in Canada's export GDP figures for some reason. We are vicious toadies in more ways than we know I think.
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!"
Benjamin Franklin
If you want liberty you better be able to fight and defend it. I wish the world was a safe place, but it isn't. So we better be able to kick some butt, or at least make it cost dear just out of self defense.
Unfortunately we must devise more efficient and effective ways to kill each other. Over time, we'll probable devise a very inexpensive way to off ourselves. Then by accident or deliberate intent, we'll become extinct.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.04/joy.html
Got to admit tho ..Canada does a good job of covering it all up...the media is probably proud of being a good govt mule, less they don't get invited to the big press dinner...or senate appointment for being a so called good canadian?..what a sorry bunch eh...Just recently Harper was in India ..peddling of all things uranium..and yes Canada is guilty of supplying that product for decades and decades for an obvious purpose and can be in the future guilty of omnicide (destruction of a planet).....but yeah business as usual.
If a nuclear tipped missle lands in Canada one day I hope Canadians don't whine ..the nuclear material was probably made in Canada.....talk about weapons in the wrong hands..it doesn't get any worse than that and what gets shipped around comes around.
Hey we also produced lovely agent orange that we conveniently didn't tell our citizens about until it leaked into the water supply in Elmira ontario(uniroyal I think) I was living there for a short time so we kept up on the news when we left. It was around 1990.
From Wiki
During the 1960s under contract with the U.S. government, Elmira's Uniroyal chemical plant (which changed its name to Crompton Company in 2001 and then to Chemtura in 2006) was one of seven manufacturers supplying the U.S. military with the toxic herbicide Agent Orange. Due to the poor disposal practices of the toxic waste associated with the manufacture of Agent Orange and other chemicals, contamination has seeped down to the aquifer in and around Elmira. This contamination, NDMA (N-nitrose dimethylamine), forced local water wells to close in 1990. Water is now delivered via a pipeline from Waterloo and other near local areas.
Tories trying to add 'loopholes' to arms trade treaty, NDP charges
excerpt:
The Harper government is trying to fudge efforts to craft an effective international treaty to govern the global arms trade by adding oversight "loopholes" into the agreement, the NDP says.
NDP trade critic Don Davies says the Tories are trying to water down the global push for a United Nations arms trade treaty to score domestic political points with red-meat conservatives.
He and other treaty supporters point to the Harper government's desire not to include the mandatory tracking of ammunition, or detailed reporting on high-volume trades. They say another example of Canada's attempts to gum up the treaty is Canada's suggestion that no new money go to the UN to police the agreement's implementation.
The government says the treaty should recognize the legitimacy of legal and responsible trade in what it calls conventional weapons, and private citizens' lawful ownership of guns for personal and recreational use.
Mr. Davies attended the first week of negotiations in New York, and said foreign delegations frequently asked him why Canada was trying to weaken the treaty by pushing for ammunition and other items to be exempt.
that is so disgusting.
Yup.
Canadian War Industries At Middle East's Largest Arms Bazaar - by Richard Saunders
http://mostlywater.org/canadian_war_industries_middle_easts_largest_arms...
"Canadian war industries are flogging their wares at IDEX, the largest weapons bazaar in the Middle East and North Africa. 'We're excited to see such a large number of Canadian exhibitors,' said Arif Lalani, Canada's ambassador to the UAE. 'These companies represent the best of Canada's capabilities and technologies in a number of areas of the defence and security sector..."