CCC : Crown corporate arms dealer

"There is no better trade show for defence equipment than a military mission,"  wrote Marc Whittingham, CEO of the Canadian Commercial Corporation five years ago.

CCC is the crown corp stick-handling Canada's $14.8B arms deal with Saudi Arabia for an undisclosed number of Light Armoured Vehicles to be manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), based in London, Ontario.

The new CCC CEO Martin Zablocki told an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper last year that he considers "the union of Arab states in the Persian Gulf one of the hottest markets in which to sell military wares." 

So we do military trade shows there now.

Chairman of the Board Ray Castelli is also CEO of Vancouver-based Weatherhaven, "a builder of deployable military shelters." 

This is the spot we've staked out for ourselves as regards what it pleases Justin Trudeau to refer to as Canada selling "jeeps" to the Saudi Arabian National Guard to protect the Saudi royal family.

*Global* Affairs Minister Stephane Dion said "It’s not a backing, it’s simply a private-company contract”...  skipping over the bit about Canadian taxpayers funding it via a crown corp.

“For reasons of commercial confidentiality, Global Affairs Canada does not comment on specific export permit applications.” Nor do they intend "to make public a recently completed assessment of the state of human rights in Saudi Arabia."

We officially condemn the public floggings, beheadings, and of course the crucifixions, and I'm sure M. Dion was saddened to learn the Saudi *coalition* bombed a school for the blind in Yemen yesterday, but as Canada - alongside Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Somalia and Syria - has not signed the Universal Arms Trade Treaty, it's all good for business. 

The Canadian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Tom MacDonald last February : 

"The Big One is Landed.

 A big congrats! And inspiring for all. Great day for Canadian interests. The biggest-ever single export deal in Canadian history.

This is also a breakthrough deal for CCC which will be the prime contractor and will receive a substantial service fee for its role.  CCC expects to establish a presence in KSA in due course to manage the contract."

Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada as per international.gc.ca

Saudi Arabia - - 2010 - 2011 and  2012 - 2013 :

• Guns. Bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges, and related equipment and accessories specially designed for military use. 
• Ground vehicles. 
• Vessels of war, special naval equipment and accessories, and components specially designed for military use
• Countermeasure equipment specially designed for military use
• Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment and components, specially designed or modified for military use. 
• Specialized equipment for military training or for simulating military scenarios, simulators specially designed for training in the use of any firearm or weapon controlled in 2-1 or 2-2, and specially designed components and accessories
• Imaging or countermeasure equipment, specially designed for military use.

Might be time to revisit the official Canadian definition of "jeeps".

h/t Kev for video of General Dynamics ad for their LAVs

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Update : Feb 3 2016 CBC investigates the per diem expenses of the last three CCC board chairs, which include a day of golf for the board members, four days at a reception in Washington, and a junket to an airshow in Paris.
CCC says all legit and approved under guidelines. 
Kinda like those Senate per diems I'm guessing.
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Why are we in Vietnam Iraq/Syria?

Bloomberg : Syria-to-Ukraine Wars Send U.S. Defense Stocks to Records :

"Led by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), the biggest U.S. defense companies are trading at record prices as shareholders reap rewards from escalating military conflicts around the world. 

President Barack Obama approved open-ended airstrikes this month while ruling out ground combat. 

 “To the extent we can shift away from relying on troops and rely more heavily on equipment -- that could present an opportunity.” [enthused a chief investment officer who oversees $66 billion including Northrop Grumman Corp. and Boeing Co.] 

Investors see rising sales for makers of missiles, drones and other weapons as the U.S. hits Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq. The U.S. also is the biggest foreign military supplier to Israel, which waged a 50-day offensive against the Hamas Islamic movement in the Gaza Strip.

Lockheed, the world’s biggest defense company, reached an all-time high of $180.74 on Sept. 19, when Northrop, Raytheon Co.and General Dynamics Corp. also set records. That quartet and Chicago-based Boeing accounted for about $105 billion in federal contract orders last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

In its first night of airstrikes into Syria, the U.S. dropped about 200 munitions and launched 47 Raytheon-made Tomahawk cruise missiles, according to U.S. Central Command. The military also deployed Boeing’s GBU-32 Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Hellfire missiles from Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, creating an opening for restocking U.S. arsenals."

Meanwhile, stop me if you've also heard this one before ... From the LA Times, yesterday :

"Iraqi news outlets reported Monday that at least 18 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in an airstrike on a town under siege by fighters from the extremist group Islamic State.  Hit’s general hospital received 18 bodies, including three women and eight children, all killed in an airstrike.  

Maj. Curtis J.  Kellogg, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, said there was “no evidence” of civilian casualties in Hit."

And so it goes ...

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Push-polling deep integration for General Dynamics

A mere four days after foisting John Ibbitson's paeon to deep integration on us, the Globe and Mail is at it again, this time reporting on a poll which purports to show that "Canadians want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to work more closely with a new U.S. administration" and "Canadians expect their government to work closely with the U.S. on international problems".
According to this poll, 62% of Canadians would even "adopt American regulatory standards if it would ease restrictions at the border".

As Ibbitson also proclaimed, the reason why this will all be ok is : "Canadians are excited about the prospect of a Barack Obama presidency". Obama, a fine orator whose speeches move me to tears but whose voting record is thus far still somewhere to the right of Stephen Harper's, is apparently the new deep integration selling point to Canadians.

The G&M refers to the institute which commissioned the poll, the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, merely as a "Calgary-based institute".
Rather more useful would have been the information that CDFAI is a lobby group funded by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and "defence contractor" General Dynamics, beneficiary of millions of dollars in arms contracts due to Canadian participation in the U.S War on Terra.

The article also quotes "Colin Robertson, senior fellow with the institute", but fails to mention "he was a member of the team that negotiated the Free Trade Agreement with the United States", information freely available on his CDFAI bio, or that currently Mr. Robertson has been seconded by DFAIT to Carleton University to direct the Canada-US Project, along with fellow continentalist Derek Burney :

Blueprint for Canada-US Engagement under a New Administration
Purpose: To develop a blueprint for a joint Canada-US agenda focused on bilateral and global prosperity and security issues.

Included among its listed "themes" are :

• Canada-US defense cooperation (Note US spelling of defence)
• The North American energy-environment nexus
• Cross-border regulatory cooperation
• Scope and issue areas for greater bilateral cooperation in the Americas

Unsurprisingly, these are the same issues addressed in the CDFAI poll and happily reported in the G&M as Canadians, despite their "healthy skepticism of the Americans", enthusiastically supporting greater ties.

Thanks, G&M. Can hardly wait for your next one. And as CDFAI is holding a one-day conference in Ottawa today - What Does it Mean to Be Good Neighbours? - including Robert Pastor, Vice Chair of the 2005 Task Force on the Future of North America and author of Toward a North American Community, I expect we'll be hearing more of the same from you again quite soon.