ONTARIO, Apr 11 (NNN-NNA) – The Canadian government is lifting a suspension on arms exports to Saudi Arabia, and renegotiated a controversial multi-billion-dollar contract, that will see an Ontario-based company sell light armoured vehicles (LAV’s) to Riyadh.
The “significant improvements” to the contract would secure the jobs of thousands of Canadians, “not only in Southwestern Ontario, but also across the entire defence industry supply chain, which includes hundreds of small and medium enterprises,” Foreign Minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, and Minister of Finance, Bill Morneau, said in a statement.
In Dec, 2018, Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, maintained that, Canada “was looking for a way out of the Saudi arms deal,” following the murder of Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi.
A month earlier, the Liberal government suspended approvals of new arms export permits for Saudi Arabia, pending an indefinite review.
The 14-billion-Canadian-dollar ($10-billion) deal, to export LAV’s made by the Ontario-based General Dynamics Land Systems to Saudi Arabia, was brokered in 2014 by the previous Conservative government.
Trudeau’s Liberal government subsequently gave the final approval for the deal, following the 2015 election.
The ministers added that, as a state party to the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, Canada’s goods cannot be exported where there is a “substantial risk” that they would be used in violating human rights and humanitarian law.
“We have now begun reviewing permit applications on a case-by-case basis,” the statement said.– NNN-NNA
