A Decade of Military Exports to Saudi Arabia 2003-2013

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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"Jeeps"

October 2015 election campaign : Justin Trudeau defends the Conservative government's $15B armoured combat vehicle deal with Saudi Arabia as being just about "jeeps".

Photo at right November 16 2015 : Saudi National Guard moving combat vehicles to Yemen border in November.

Are those our LAVs? Yes they are.

G&M Feb. 22 2016 : Saudis appear to be using Canadian-made combat vehicles against Yemeni rebels

"... a retired Canadian general consulted by The Globe and Mail, who spoke on condition of anonymity, identified the LAVs being transported to Najran as fighting vehicles made by General Dynamics Land Systems. 

Critics say having Canadian-made arms enmeshed in a conflict that has claimed more than 2,800 civilian lives should prompt Ottawa to rethink the recent $15-billion deal to sell hundreds or thousands more to the Saudis."

Doctors Without Borders MSF reports a third MSF hospital in Yemen bombed by Saudi coalition forces. 

G&M April 12 2016 : Dion quietly approved arms sale to Saudi Arabia in April

From March 21 documents  "...the department of Global Affairs recommended approval of the Saudi export permits because it could help Saudi Arabia wage war in neighbouring Yemen." 

CBC April 12 2016 Stéphane Dion approves export permits for $11B in LAVs to be sent to Saudi Arabia
Documents say past sales have not been linked to violations of civil or political rights in the kingdom

[Global Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion] said he can't block exports unless the armoured vehicles are being used against innocent civilians.
So far, he said, there is no evidence of that.
"Should I become aware of credible information of violations related to this equipment, I will suspend or revoke the permits," he said.

So Global Affairs' "key partner for Canada""using Canadian-made combat vehicles against Yemeni rebels" five months ago isn't sufficient reason not to forge ahead with the deal Dion lied to Canadians about as long as we don't 'become aware' the new LAVs are similarly used in the future. Got it.

CBC April 13 2016 : Justin Trudeau says jobs in southern Ontario are dependent on the Saudi arms deal

And in what will come as a surprise to absolutely no one : 

Reuters April 8 2016 : How Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen has made al Qaeda stronger – and richer

Sunni ways indeed.
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Saturday Update from Mound of Sound : One More Thing About that Saudi Death Wagon Deal
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Sunni Ways

G&M : Saudis defend human rights record over $15-billion arms deal with Canada  

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia believes that call[s] for universality of human rights does not mean imposition of principles and values that go against our Islamic values and religion.”

Here in Canada, we don't believe calls for universality of human rights means imposition of principles and values that go against our corporate values and profits religion.


Unreported in Canadian media was last week's "eleventh session of the Canada - Saudi Joint Committee" - see photo above - where the "importance of the private sector in the two countries" was agreed upon.  It's a yearly thing. 

A representative from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development of Canada discussed challenges and difficult times in the region, requiring "the two countries to work together to explore further opportunities for cooperation and economic partnership."

In another Riyadh report on "the importance of this meeting being the first under the new Government of Canada", Trudeau was described as "more open" leading to "hopes for the Saudi business sector and Canadian senior government support in terms of the development of economic cooperation and business partnerships between the two countries."

As Global Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion explained to the Senate a month ago, if we were to cancel the Saudi arms deal : 

"what would surely happen is that the equipment in question would be sold to Saudi Arabia by a less scrupulous country, and the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia would not change one iota."

Meanwhile Steven Chase at the G&M reports on the difficulty of getting any info from Global Affairs on Saudi contracts with three more Canadian *defence* companies.

Plus ça Real Change,  plus c'est la même chose...

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Tony Clement : Under New Management

G&M  Aug. 26 2015 : Harper assured details of Saudi arms deal would stay under wraps

"Ottawa is contractually obliged to keep secret the details of a controversial $15-billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia – a transaction that Stephen Harper personally assured the country’s monarch will be guaranteed by the Canadian government, documents say."

G&M Jan.11, 2016 : Tories press Liberal government to justify Saudi arms deal

"The Liberal government is facing increasing pressure to make public the most important deliberations on Canada’s $15-billion sale of combat vehicles to Saudi Arabia: precisely how the transaction is justified under this country’s strict weapons export control regime.

 Mr. [Tony] Clement acknowledges that the Conservatives are asking for information they refused to release while in office under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

But he says the new leadership of the Conservative Party feels differently."

Dear Tony
Congratulations on "feeling differently". We eagerly look forward to the new management pressing for details of other secrets withheld by the former management. 
Here's a partial list to get you started : Stephen Harper, Serial Abuser of Power
Best,
Alison
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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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Harper "whips out" his ISIL lawyer joke

The Con bench seals laugh and clap at Steve's joke blowing off the UN and international law because grade six. 

Harper went on to explain that Canada will be bombing Syria as part of an international coalition, although the US is the only NATO member currently bombing Syria. The other coalition countries bombing Syria are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Qatar, and the UAE. 

This same coalition of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, and the UAE minus Qatar also began bombing Yemen today. Egypt and Kuwait will be joining the offensive while Pakistan is still considering it. Nobel Peace Prize recipient President Obama has authorized the provision of US logistical and intelligence support to help bomb the Houthi rebels in Yemen who are fighting Al Qaeda and IS.
The Saudi-led air campaign against the Houthis in Yemen is dubbed “Decisive Storm”.

Harper says IS is a threat to Canada and will extend the mission for another year. 
DefMin Jason Kenney says they have no particular exit strategy..

h/t Maclean's for vid.

Update : Kenney whips out his "smart bombs", claiming Canada and the US are the only *coalition* bombing members that have them. David Pugliese shoots it down - both Saudi Arabia and UAE have 'em - in Saudi Arabia's case since 2008.

Harper and Kenney are leaning very heavily on the word 'coalition' in their bomb bomb bomb statements but as to who those coalition members actually are - not so much. 

Update2 : Aaron Wherry weighs in tonight on Harper joking about international law :
 Stephen Harper on the legality of bombing Syria: LOL

Shorter bonus grade six from Wherry : The government's position yesterday was that under UN Article 51, they 1) would be bombing Syria and 2) would not be informing the UN about it because it wasn't required. 
Turns out right in Article 51 it specifies that "Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council" so the government has now *clarified* its earlier stance and will be sending notification after all. 
World stage.

Update 3 : David Pugliese : 
Gen. Tom Lawson tries to dig Jason Kenney out of a bomb crater of his own making

Gwynne Dyer : Yemen: Unintended consequences   and 

Gwynne Dyer explains why terrorism is overblown and why Islamists want western countries to attack the Islamic State

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Dear Fred :

Thanks for yet another letter about how your anti-terrorism bill will crack down on ISIS recruiting Canadians over social media.

Have you heard of twitter by any chance? 

But the show must go on, eh? 

Gosh, was it only a year ago you announced a $10 to $14 billion General Dynamics contract to build and sell military LAV IIIs to Saudi Arabia because jobs jobs jobs? 

Sadly the whole jobs jobs jobs angle hasn't really taken off for you, has it? 
So its jihad jihad jihad all the time instead now and later today Steve will announce in the HoC he's going to expand getting his war on in Iraq and Syria for another year because following the US into yet another disastrous cycle of seeing how much worse the next bunch of rabid killers we will create out of it will take Steve's 'war president' shtick past the next election.

Anyhow, Fred, I wanted to thank you for this inspirational line from your letter :

"Those who would attempt to abuse the rights enjoyed by Canadians to spread their ideology of hate must be stopped."

Yeah, come the next election I think the majority of Canadians will be looking into that.

Alison

P.S. Almost forgot - please send $15.
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4am in a bar - the leaders of the *free world*

Steve : Just say "I stand with Saudi Arabia" a bunch of times, wait for the press to repeat it, and there ya go. Canada! Fuck Yeah! Comin' again to save the motherfuckin' day, yeah ...

Barry, Tony, Dave: No. No. No.

Barry : Look, Steve, I know that 'I stand with whoever ' line works for you up there in Canada but picture me going home and saying : "You know that country that 15 out of 19 hijackers came from that bombed the WTO on 9/11 ? Remember them? Well, funny thing - they've gone and got themselves into a bit of a jam by funding ISIS, another made-in-Al Qaeda group, so we're going to help them out here by going back into Iraq again to bomb their batshit out-of-control wahhabi-zombies before they start WWIII." 

Tony : You have to admit it would be pretty fucking awesome to put it out there like that.

Barry : Yeah, hi-larious. No, leave the Saudis out of this.

Dave : What we need is some kind of babies being thrown out of incubators onto the floor thing like we had for Kuwait.

Steve : Do they have to be brown babies again? Couldn't we use something bad happening  to white people this time? Kinda makes it more immediate for folks back home. Also we need reports of ISIS about to attack us at home. 

Barry : No problem - minor logistics. But we're also going to need heroes, people that our voters can really get behind and cheer for. 

Dave : What about hot chicks in camo with guns?

Tony, Steve : WTF? Get outta here.

Dave : No really. There's this battalion of guerrilla Kurd female fighters spanning Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria.  Some of them - very hot. Plus, the peshmerga commander of Kurdish forces in Kobani is a woman.

Barry : ... "The female fighters defying ISIS - mothers, wives, daughters - risking their lives every day to protect their homes and families" ...  Yeah, that could work.

Tony : I've heard of them. Didn't they evacuate thousands of Yazidis under attack from ISIS? - an operation I believe you took credit for, Barry. Fuckin' doomed now though, aren't they, eh? Pinned down defending Kobani for three weeks with their ammo running out and Kerry says meh to those hot peshmerga and PKK chicks. 

Steve : PKK? The Kurdistan Workers Party? Wait, aren't they ... terrorists? Aren't they Marxists?

Barry : Who gives a shit, Steve? It's not like they're going to win - we'll just drop some bombs on some empty buildings out in the desert and everybody goes home happy.

Dave : Speaking of going home ... I've got an early flight out of here in the morning - time to call it a night.

Steve : Already? We should really do this more often, guys. Hey, have any of you ever met a real Bilderburger - you know, one of the guys actually named Bilderburg?

Barry : Say goodnight, Steve.
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Bomb bomb bomb Iran Syria

Three days ago Mint Press News out of Minneapolis published a story written by MidEast AP reporter Dale Gavlak based on eyewitness accounts from relatives of Syrian rebels killed in the Aug. 21 chemical 'attack'. They contend that what actually occurred was an accident caused by the rebels mishandling their Saudi-supplied chemical weapons cargo : 

EXCLUSIVE: Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack

Rebels and local residents in Ghouta accuse Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan of providing chemical weapons to an al-Qaida linked rebel group.

“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions.”

That it could have been the rebels who set off the chem *attacks* is not without precedent. The Independent, May 6, 2013 : 

UN's Carla Del Ponte says there is evidence rebels may have used sarin in Syria.

A United Nations inquiry into human rights abuses in Syria has found evidence that rebel forces may have used chemical weapons, its lead investigator has revealed.

Carla Del Ponte, a member of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said that testimony gathered from casualties and medical staff indicated that the nerve agent sarin was used by rebel fighters.“This was used on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities,” she added.

The White House immediately issued a statement that if chem weapons were used in Syria the Assad regime was responsible. Both sides have accused the other of the use of such weapons since the US-backed civil war began two years ago.  

Obviously I can't assess the credibility of Gavlak's report but I'm posting a link to it because Canadian media has been happy enough to report on John Baird's support for the US position two days ago :

"U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry publicly outlined details of how they concluded that the Assad regime flagrantly used chemical weapons against its own people, causing wide-scale death and devastation in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21, 2013.  Along with its international partners and allies, Canada has condemned this despicable and abhorrent act."

but has yet to mention Gavlak's report.

Very good article from FAIR : Which Syrian Chemical Attack Is More Credible?
ending with this :

This humility about the difficulty of reporting on a covert, invisible attack in the midst of a chaotic civil war actually adds to the credibility of the Mint account. It's those who are most certain about matters of which they clearly lack firsthand knowledge who should make us most skeptical.

Tangental fun facts : 
In 2011, Saudi Arabia received one-third of Canada's total $12-billion in arms exports . 

"The total in government-approved arms export licences for Saudi Arabia was more than 100 times the $35 million approved in 2010."

Up until Aug 2011, the Government of Canada Canada-Syria Relations webpage read : 

"Canada is now the 3rd largest foreign direct investor in Syria due to a $1.2 billion Suncor/Petro Canada gas project."

Canada's reluctance to make public last week's military co-operation agreement with China is possibly due to Beijing's close ties to Assad's regime.
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