Loopholes and Libya

Really? Because a mere two weeks ago, Steven Chase was reporting: 
Ottawa rewrites mandate for screening arms exports

"The Canadian government has quietly watered down its own mandate for screening the export of military goods, rewriting parts of the only substantive public statement available on Ottawa’s responsibilities for policing foreign sales."

Previous policy on military exports : Canada’s export controls are meant “to regulate and impose certain restrictions on exports in response to clear policy objectives.” 

New policy :"export controls are intended “to balance the economic and commercial interests of Canadian business with the national interest of Canada.”

So it's jobs, jobs, jobs vs "Canada prohibits the export of arms and related materiel to countries that are under United Nations Security Council arms embargos "

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan's guarded "hints" above yesterday come in response to this item two days ago : 

"Earlier this year, a UN report criticized the Streit Group, which has a plant in Innisfil, Ont., north of Toronto, for the "illicit transfer" of 131 armoured vehicles in 2012...   At least 79 Typhoon and Spartan patrol vehicles were delivered to the effectively lawless nation in 2014

"Streit's sales were brokered through middlemen. At least four separate companies, one American and three from the United Arab Emirates, purchased the vehicles."

This brokering through middlemen to a third country is called diversion, which was prohibited by Global Affairs until it changed the rules this year to allow it.

In 2012 and 2013, the United Arab Emirates was, according to Global Affairs, our second largest destination for military exports after Saudi Arabia. 

From international.gc.ca:

Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada - 2012
United Arab Emirates     $277,116,557  No armoured cars but $251,134,882 for : 
"Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines ...specially designed or modified for military use"

 Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada  - 2013  ***

Libya            $3,116,000     "Ground vehicles and components" 
United Arab Emirates       $4,038,373  of which $1,659,530 was for "Ground vehicles"

Table 4: Exports of Military Goods and Technology - 2014

Libya            $2,681,000      "Ground vehicles and components"

United Arab Emirates    $10,204,844 - of which $5,205,000 were "Ground vehicles" and another $3,706,563 was for "Imaging or countermeasure equipment, specially designed for military use"

Report on Exports of Military Goods from Canada - 2015

Nothing for Libya

United Arab Emirates   $3,629,728 worth of "Military Goods and Technology" but no mention exactly what was shipped.        

So are these ground vehicle sales part of the Streit Group shipment to Libya and South Sudan, or some other shipment altogether?

Well we're unlikely ever to know who shipped what where because of another change made this year to our government’s policy governing the export of military goods :

"The names of exporting companies are now specifically protected."

Neither will we know how much happens to find its way to "lawless nations" through the US, where Streit happens to have a plant, because :

"The tables do not report exports of military goods to the United States, which are roughly estimated to account for over half of Canada’s exports of military goods and technology each year."

*** Fun fact : Following the $347-million Libya * mission* and a few months after Steve had his very own Mission Accomplished moment, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird signed off on $2.68 million in armoured vehicle export sales to Libya during the UN investigation. 

Baird also announced a $65.3-million deal to sell General Dynamics LAVs to Colombia through the Canadian Commercial Corporation.

Because it's 2016 ... just like it was in 2012.

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Last week in Real Change™

FRIDAY June 17
No need for inquiry into Afghan detainee torture, Liberals say

Federal Liberals who argued for a public inquiry, while in opposition, into the treatment of prisoners during the Afghan war, now say they will not conduct such an investigation.

Assisted Dying Bill C-14 Passes Senate With Liberals' Restrictive Approach

Canadians suffering intolerably from non-terminal medical conditions can no longer seek medical assistance to end their lives, thanks to a restrictive new federal law enacted Friday.

THURSDAY June 16 

The curious case of MP Ouellette   **
Libs vote down motion to have Finance Committee study feasibility of guaranteed income   

Liberals reject Senate bid to expand eligibility for medically-assisted death

WEDNESDAY June 15

Ottawa owes veterans no ‘duty of care,’ federal lawyers argue in case

The federal Liberal government says it agrees with an argument advanced – and later abandoned – by the former Conservative government that Canada owes no special duty of care to those injured in the line of duty.

TUESDAY June 14

Canada now the second biggest arms exporter to Middle East

Canada has soared in global rankings to become the second biggest arms dealer to the Middle East on the strength of its massive sale of combat vehicles to Saudi Arabia

MONDAY June 13

The Liberal government has no plans to decriminalize marijuana before legalizing it, Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould said Monday.

** Terrific piece by Mia Rabson on what I often see in committee - Libs argue passionately in favour of some progressive motion in committee, then unanimously vote it down.
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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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Ethical arms sales from Canada

Back here in comments, e.a.f. noted I was singling out Israel for its promotion of occupied Gaza as a lab/marketing display tool for selling its population control armaments abroad - when USA arms manufacturers also benefit. 

Too true. Also Canada.

As Marc Whittingham, CEO of the Canadian Commercial Corporation, the crown corporation that acts as Canada's global military sales agency and "a foreign policy instrument for the government of Canada", once put it :

 "There is no better trade show for defence equipment than a military mission."  

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

Israel - 

• Chemical or biological toxic agents, riot control agents, radioactive materials, and related equipment, components, materials. 
• Bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges, and related equipment and accessories specially designed for military use. 
• Vessels of war, special naval equipment and accessories, and components specially designed for military use. 
• Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles. 
• Specialized equipment for military training or for simulating military scenarios, simulators specially designed for training in the use of any firearm or weapon.

Saudi Arabia -

• Guns. Bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges, and related equipment and accessories specially designed for military use. 
• Ground vehicles. 
• Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment and components, specially designed or modified for military use. 
• Imaging or countermeasure equipment, specially designed for military use.

Qatar - 

• Chemical or biological toxic agents, riot control agents, radioactive materials, and related equipment, components, materials

[Aug 25, 2014 Update : Yesterday in the NYTimes, Israel's ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor called Qatar the “Club Med for Terrorists.”]

Egypt - 

• "Guns. Ammo. 
• 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. 
• Imaging or countermeasure equipment, specially designed for military use." 

Iraq - Software.

Bahrain - 

• "Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment and components, specially designed or modified for military use."

Colombia - 

• "Bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges, and related equipment and accessories 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. 
• Imaging or countermeasure equipment, specially designed for military use, and specially designed components and accessories."

[Note : Since this gc.ca report was issued, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird recommended amending the Automatic Firearms Country Control List (AFCCL) to create "new market opportunities" for Canadian companies to sell armoured personnel carriers to the Colombian military in January 2013.]

Algeria - "Aircraft, lighter-than-air vehicles, unmanned airborne vehicles, aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment and components, specially designed or modified for military use." 

Ukraine - "Guns. Ammo."

Russia - "Guns. Ammo. Electronic equipment. Software."

I could go on. You will note we have armed both sides of many recent bloody conflicts, as for instance when Saudi Arabia sent troops into Bahrain to crush their "Arab Spring".

In the time period covered here, 2010 - 2011, 28 countries received "Chemical or biological toxic agents, riot control agents, radioactive materials, and related equipment, components, materials" from Canada.

The figures from this Feb 4 2014 report cover nothing more recent, as our government has not seen fit to provide the Canadian public with more up-to-date figures.   

However Project Ploughshares does provide this rather startling graphic on Canadian Commercial Corporation's recent marketing success in securing "two contracts totalling $14.8-billion awarded by the CCC to General Dynamics Land Systems Canada of London, Ontario during the 2013-14 fiscal year to supply Saudi Arabia with military armoured vehicles. "

According to Project Ploughshares : 

"For the first time in more than half-a-century of CCC operations, Saudi Arabia has displaced the United States as the largest year-on-year recipient of CCC-brokered military export contracts."

Canada, of course, has declined to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty.
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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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CCC : a Crown corporation arms dealer

 "There is no better trade show for defence equipment than a military mission."  

~ Marc Whittingham, CEO of the Canadian Commercial Corporation, the crown corporation that acts as Canada's global military sales agency.

But just in case demonstrations of Canadian military equipment against the 90% civilian casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq are insufficiently compelling, the publicly funded CCC also rents a trailer with Export Development Canada at the big yearly CANSEC arms dealer trade show, which is where Embassy Mag caught up with its enthusiastically entrepreneurial CEO.

 CCC sees 'untapped market' for Canadian arms

"You wouldn't know it from the lack of news coverage, but the Canadian Commercial Corporation has been transformed from a low-profile Canadian intermediary agency to a major player in promoting Canadian global arms sales.

The Crown corporation, often referred to simply as CCC, is best known for its primary job, selling Canadian military technology to the US Department of Defense under the 1956 US Defence Production Sharing Agreement, which today works out to about $1.4-billion worth of product flowing south. 

But in the last few years, as the US defence industry began cooling after years of growth, CCC began talking to foreign governments about whether it was feasible for them to fill what was seen as a yawning gap by emulating some of the actions of the US defence department's Foreign Military Sales program.

The answer was a resounding "yes," and CCC realized it was sitting on a lucrative market. Now, Canadian defence contractors say they are increasingly turning to CCC to help them sell their technology to foreign militaries, and CCC is looking at $10.3 billion in contracts for 2010-11."

Apparently the yearly US Foreign Military Sales in arms is $35 billion, but world demand on them is $50 billion so a combination of $15.6 million per year of tax dollars plus CCC's sales commissions filled that "yawning gap" in making the world a better place for arms dealers.

According to CCC's 2010 annual report : "CCC charges fees for service only on its non-DPSA transactions, as its DPSA transactions are funded through parliamentary appropriations" - meaning that you and I are underwriting their fees on contracts with the US military, contracts which account for 80% of their business.
The CCC Corporate Plan 2010/2011 to 2014/2015 notes the "CCC manages between $1 billion and $1.7 billion annually with the U.S. DoD."

CCC CEO Whittingham, formerly the Assistant Deputy Minister of Public Affairs at Public Safety Canada, explains CCC's new direction :

"We are Canada's global defence sales agency. And so we then moved from being an organization that was largely reactive to Canadian industry ­and we would have done, and have done certain deals in defence ­but we didn't have a proactive strategy ourselves, internally, that said we need a business development capability ... we have a business line dedicated to that now. We are small and nimble, and we are able to charge a smaller fee, obviously, for being a Canadian government element within a transaction."

Obviously.

We have a vice-president of business development and sales, a director of global defence sales. Our board of directors is very enthusiastic about it."

Among them - Andrew Saxton Sr, father of North Van Con MP Andrew Saxton Jr.

Back to the CCC Corporate Plan :

"CCC, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) and Export Development Canada (EDC) make up Canada’s International Trade Portfolio. In conducting its business, CCC utilizes DFAIT’s Trade Commissioner Service (TCS), which has a well-established international footprint with representation in over 150 embassies, consulates, high commissions and trade offices worldwide.
The Corporation’s mandate... directs CCC to play an integral role in helping the government of Canada achieve its overall goals.

The Corporation’s two business lines are structured to support Canadian companies contracting into the defence sector, primarily with the United States, and into emerging and developing country markets.

CCC’s commercial trading transactions over the next five years will [show] a 90% increase from the last five years. The Corporation’s fees will increase from $7.6 million in 2008-09 to $11.0 million in 2009-10, and to $20.4 million by 2014-15.

Strategic goals :

• Serve as a foreign policy instrument for the government of Canada

• Contribute to the development of public policy & programs that support Canadian exporters. 

The Defence Market 

According to the Stockholm International Peace Institute, global military expenditure in 2008 was estimated to be $1.46 trillion USD. This represented a 45% increase from 1999.

Major spending was mainly due to : foreign policy objectives, including the War on Terror; real or perceived threats; armed conflict; and policies contributing to multilateral peacekeeping operations.

From time to time the CCC website site presents a success story, like a $2B DND and Bombadier joint-procurement deal to provide the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Royal Saudi Air Force with a "program for Aviation and Technical Training".

And above a truly lovely photo of a sunny backlit forest :   Corporate Social Responsibility

"At CCC, we commit to operating in an environmentally, socially, and ethically responsible manner, and to respect Canada's international commitments..."

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War is a racket

NYTimes : "The U.S. Department of Defense has agreed so far this fiscal year to sell or transfer more than $32 billion in weapons and other military equipment to foreign governments, compared with $12 billion in 2005.

The trend, which started in 2006, is most pronounced in the Middle East, but it reaches into northern Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and even Canada.

"This is not about being gunrunners,” said Bruce S. Lemkin, the Air Force deputy under secretary who is helping to coordinate many of the biggest sales. “This is about building a more secure world."

Deliveries on orders now being placed will continue for several years, perhaps as one of President Bush’s most lasting legacies.

In that booming market, American military contractors are working closely with the Pentagon, which acts as a broker and procures arms for foreign customers through its Foreign Military Sales program.

About 60 countries get annual military aid from the United States, $4.5 billion a year, to help them buy American weapons. Israel and Egypt receive more than 80 percent of that aid.

Mr. Lemkin, of the Pentagon, said that with so many nations now willing to sell advanced weapons systems, the United States could not afford to be too restrictive in its own sales.
"Would you rather they bought the weapons and aircraft from other countries?” he said. “Because they will."

U.S. and presumably also Canadian Armed Forces will be facing those "tanks, helicopters, fighter jets, missiles, remotely piloted aircraft, and even warships" on Steve's "world stage" for decades to come. Bastards.

War is a racket.

War is just a racket.