Without doubt over the last 75 years, the US has been the biggest outside troublemaker in the Middle East, with Biden playing a major role in that, but he has now cut support for the Saudi attack on Yemen and cut related arm sales as Yemenis face the world's worst famine and a horrendous death toll from the war. Meanwhile, the Trudeau Liberals have not addressed our role in the problem, especially with regard to our $14.8 billion contract to sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia which have been used in the war. The deal started under Harper, but in 2019 under Trudeau we doubled our arms sales to Saudi Arabia, making Canada the #2 arms seller in the Middle East, while keeping most of the arm sales agreement secret. This doubling comes after Trudeau placed a moratorium on arm sales on new arms exports to the Saudis. Some moratorium! It's long past time for this to change. The claim that Canada only sells defensive weapons is ridiculous, especially when we also sell the Saudis artillery and heavy machine guns.
Canada sold a record amount of military hardware to Saudi Arabia in 2019, despite sharply criticizing its poor human rights record and placing a moratorium on any new exports to the kingdom.
Newly released figures show Canada sold nearly C$3bn (US$2.2bn) worth of military equipment to Saudi Arabia in 2019 – more than double the total of the previous year, reported the Globe and Mail. The bulk of the exports were light armoured vehicles, part of a deal with the Saudis worth C$14.8bn. The record figures come despite a moratorium on export permits following the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and mounting civilian deaths from the war in Yemen. The government’s decision not to issue new permits does not affect existing permits. A permit can cover multiple items and as a result, companies have existing permits for years.
Justin Trudeau says Canada is looking to pull out of Saudi arms deal “I struggle to know what ‘moratorium’ means to this government, because to me, when there’s a moratorium on something, you can’t increase the sales of that thing. And exactly what seems to have happened,” said Mark Kersten, deputy director of the Wayamo Foundation. ...
Canada also exported more than 30 large-calibre artillery systems and 152 heavy machine guns to Saudi Arabia.
The multi-billion-dollar arms deal with the kingdom was initiated under a previous Conservative government in 2014, but continued under the Liberals. At the time it was signed, it was the largest export deal in Canada’s history, making the country the second-largest arms exporter to the Middle East. ..
Rights groups, academics and policy advisers have long called on Trudeau to cancel the deal, and follow the example of Germany and Sweden which both cancelled arms contracts with Saudi Arabia following public outrage over Khashoggi’s murder. The Liberal government argued that Canada would incur billions of dollars in penalties if it tore up the contract.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/09/canada-doubles-weapons-sal...