With growing international backlash against Saudi Arabia, and increased
tension between the Saudis and Canada, Canadian Premier Justin Trudeau
has confirmed for the first time on Sunday that his government is openly looking for a way out of a $13 billion arms deal reached with the Saudis.
Trudeau has previously said that the penalties for scrapping the deal
would be too high, but now says he’s looking at a possible freezing of
export permits, which could be done if the weapons are being misused.
The arms company in question, General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, has
issued a statement condemning the effort, and saying that there would be
huge liabilities for terminating the contract, adding it would damage Canada’s defense sector in general to not sell arms to the Saudis.
The deal is for light armored vehicles, and was reached by the Harper
government in 2014. Trudeau’s government had previously endorsed it,
though mounting anger over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, as well as war
crimes in Yemen, have Trudeau facing growing calls from allies and
opponents to stake out a different position.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz
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Bad enough that Canada has become USA”s lackey on China arresting an officer of a global leading corporation on Trumped up charges of violating the sanctions on Iran, or what ever the phoney extratortarial complaint is… But it’s even more outrageous how Canadian Policy has bucum infected with the Neocon virus of anti Iran madness. The Israelis steal Palestinian land and kill their children in wanton slaughter, and Canada BOLDLY stands with them against Iran. Why is Iran such a pariah? Because they support the Palestinian people on many issues. And they support Hesbollah. The group that ran Israel out of occupying Southern Lebanon.
Any sober analysis of the blockade & wanton slaughter of the young going on in Gaza, the West Bank & Israel itself should make Canada blush & Canadians take a more balanced & thoughtful view of who are really the bad actors and who are the victims…
Its sad that the politics of GREED trumps all other considerations.
The U.S. broke the passenger jet deal with Iran in the last minute, hey, we even kept their money for 40yrs after they paid us for weapons we never delivered. So why can’t Canada suspend this deal because of new badness from the KSA?
To answer your Rhetorical question…they can. But as it is also here in the US, there is a growing preeminent ideology within the military brass (and attendant defense (offense) contractors) of a scorched earth policy. Remember “the only good commie is a dead commie?” Well, today it’s much broader…”the only good enemy is a dead enemy” and since many of these troglodytes believe that if you’re not a Caucasian, natural born North American you must be an enemy then killing everything that moves is OK. I’m not saying there aren’t real enemies out there – we create them pretty much everywhere we send troops – but spending vast sums of money chasing boogeymen is counter-productive to an advancing and healthy society. My 2ยข.
Newsflash: having a conscience is costly, especially for those who have been acting like they don’t have a conscience for years.