Harper hates Muslims but has orgasms over weapons

Ten facts about Canada’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia

On the largest Canadian arms deal ever, with a human rights violator no less, the facts speak for themselves.

The largest arms exports contract in Canadian history will see Canadian-made military equipment shipped to one of the worst human rights violators in the world — Saudi Arabia. This will happen despite an existing export control regime specifically intended to prevent Canadian goods from fuelling human rights violations abroad.

The deal was brokered by the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) — a taxpayer-financed Crown corporation — for an undisclosed number of Light Armoured Vehicles to be manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), based in London, Ontario.

While many details of the deal remain shrouded in secrecy, below are 10 indisputable facts.

Fact 1: The deal is, by far, the largest military exports contract in Canadian history.

The contract, valued at $14.8-billion, was awarded during the 2013-2014 fiscal year. It dwarfs any other military exports contracts brokered by the CCC — ever.

With the total value of all military export contracts for 2013-2014 at $15.5-billion, the Saudi deal accounted for more than 95 percent of military exports for the fiscal year.

Fact 2: Canada’s trade policies state that Canada “closely controls” military exports to governments with “a persistent record of serious violations of the human rights of their citizens.”

 According to Canada’s export control policies, “once an application to export goods or technology has been received, wide-ranging consultations are held among human rights, international security and defence-industry experts” at Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD), the Department of National Defence, and, “as necessary, other government departments and agencies.”

Before export permits for military equipment are issued, the human rights safeguards built into Canada’s export control policies call for a case-by-case assessment, after which the Canadian government must be satisfied that “there is no reasonable risk that the goods might be used against the civilian population.”

The position of the Canadian government — as stated on the publicly accessible DFATD website — is that Canada has “some of the strongest export controls in the world.”

http://opencanada.org/features/ten-facts-about-canadas-arms-deal-with-saudi-arabia/