Feds face renewed pressure to cancel arms deal with Saudi Arabia
Posted October 30, 2018 9:36 am.
Last Updated October 30, 2018 9:40 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – Civil and human rights groups have joined forces to try and pressure the Trudeau government to stop its arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
“End the LAV deal,” Alex Neve of Amnesty International says. “Push hard for a UN arms embargo on Yemen.”
Neve is the head of one of 10 groups that are calling on the federal government to finally take action against Saudi Arabia’s many human rights abuses; from the conflict in Yemen to the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“This is a defining leadership moment for our prime minister,” Peggy Mason with the Rideau Institute adds. “We call on the Government of Canada to end all further arms exports.”
The prime minister has said that scrapping the $15-billion armoured vehicle contract would cost billions in penalties, but Neve says that’s no excuse to continue selling arms
“There cannot be a price tag on human rights and there absolutely cannot be a price tag on Canada’s possible complicity in war crimes in Yemen.”
The groups also want the government to make details of the contract public.
“So that Canadians can understand it,” Neve explains. “And that other legal experts and academics in the country can offer their views as to whether there’s another way around it.”
The government says it can’t do that because of confidentiality clauses.
