Peace and human rights organizations renewed their call on the Trudeau government to rescind export permits for the sale of Canadian-made, light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most repressive regime on Earth.
In an open letter in April to the PM, Amnesty International, Project Ploughshares and the Rideau Institute decried the $15 billion arms deal, saying it breaks both the spirit and the letter of Canada’s export controls and international laws.
Prime Minister Trudeau has maintained that cancelling the deal, brokered by the previous Conservative government in 2014, would harm Canada’s trade reputation and cost jobs at home.
Once again, it seems, private profit trumps human rights.
But what do you think Ottawa would say if a Canadian corporation tried to sell or donate weapons to Palestine, Iran, Venezuela or Cuba?