There is a lot of international outrage over the killing by Saudi Arabian agents of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. There has also been anger by human rights groups against the Saudis over atrocities committed against the people in Yemen, mainly with the use of Western supplied military equipment, ammunition and bombs. To no one’s surprise, President Trump was slow to condemn the Saudis in the murder of Khashoggi, especially in light of over $8 billion in weapons purchases from the U.S. In 2013, concerns had previously been raised about Canada’s decision to sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, which reportedly used them to help crack down on protesters in neighbouring Bahrain during the 2011 Arab Spring. Given that the production of the light armoured vehicles comes from a plant in London, Ontario, the Canadian government today continues to supply them to Saudi Arabia on a contract worth between $13 and $15 billion, despite that country’s recent well documented human rights abuses. Unfortunately, the previous Conservative government under Prime Minister Harper used the sale as an initial start to transform Canada into a global arms dealer. Canada began looking to the Middle East and South America for potential contracts as the U.S., Britain and other traditional customers cut defence spending.
The global arms trade represents a multi-billion dollar industry, involving most advanced countries who are particularly interested in selling weapons to developing countries. This especially includes weapons sold from several key countries. Russia, as a dominant power in the global arms market, saw orders for its weapons totaling over $11 billion in sales in 2015. Latin American nations, in particular Venezuela, had become a focus of marketing for Russian arms. In the same year, China reached $6 billion in weapons sales, up from its 2014 total of over $3 billion. Also, among arms manufacturers that are NATO allies, Germany has found success in marketing naval systems to the developing world. Britain has done the same with warplanes, and France weapons deals increased by well over $9 billion. Other major global arms suppliers are Sweden, Italy, Turkey, and Israel. The U.S. ranked first in global weapons sales in 2015, signing deals for about $40 billion, or half of all agreements in the worldwide arms bazaar.
Canada remains the only member of NATO and the G7 that has not signed the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which aims to regulate the trade in armaments — from handguns to tanks. In 2018, Canada’s Federal Government finally introduced proposed legislation to join the ATT. However, Parliamentary opposition argue the bill contains no assurances that the weapons could not then be transferred to countries that abuse human rights, including Saudi Arabia.
President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau are typical of leaders who have no scruples about selling weapons to countries with poor human rights records. Is it enough to say that stopping the flow of arms to Saudi Arabia is not an option, since other countries will simply step in to fill the gap — thereby depriving both countries of manufacturing jobs and billions in contracts? Despite the ATT, this position is why the global arms trade will continue to overshadow human rights.
FROLITICKS 