April 19 Update : Liberals use majority on Foreign Affairs Committee to vote down NDP motion to create Commons committee to scrutinize arms exports.
All 5 Liberal MPs on committee voted against motion : Peter Fragiskatos (London North Centre), Michael Levitt (York Centre), Marc Miller (Ville-Marie-Le Sud-Ouest-Île-des-Soeurs), Raj Saini (Kitchener Centre), Jati Sidhu (Mission-Matsqui-Fraser Canyon).
Foreign Affairs Committee Lib Chair Bob Nault (Kenora) : "Our committee is too high-profile and too important to play politics with issues. Parliament does not need "a special committee for every issue that people think needs to be discussed."
Appalled at both the size of the new military contract with Saudi Arabia and the Libs ham-fisted defence of it, Canadians have been pretty focussed on those weaponized LAVs. Yet we have been supplying the Kingdom with Item 2-10 - aircraft, drones, and components "specially designed or modified for military use" - continuously since 2004 when a $900K start-up contract was followed up in 2005 with a $10M contract.
Was this longterm contract also enacted as "a matter of principle" or does it fall more into the "if we don't someone else will jobsjobsjobs" category?
Data collected from DFAIT, Global Affairs Canada, and their archives:
2003 - 2005 http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/transfers/transparency/national_reports/canada/canada_03-05
2006 http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2010/maeci-dfait/FR2-6-2006-eng.pdf
2007 - 2009
http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/transfers/transparency/national_reports/canada/Canada_2007_2009
2010 - 2011 http://www.international.gc.ca/controls-controles/report-rapports/mil-2010-2011.aspx?lang=eng#fnb11
2012 - 2013http://www.international.gc.ca/controls-controles/report-rapports/mil-2012-2013.aspx?lang=eng#fnb16
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Update : G&M : Trade minister Chrystia Freeland ‘comfortable’ with decision to approve Saudi arms deal
G&M : Dion takes responsibility for pushing through Saudi arms deal
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1 comment:
wow
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