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1/ Seven years ago today, the government of 
announced the largest weapons contract in its history: a $14B deal to supply the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with hundreds of Canadian-made light armoured vehicles (LAVs).
Thread
#StopArmingSaudi
announced the largest weapons contract in its history: a $14B deal to supply the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with hundreds of Canadian-made light armoured vehicles (LAVs). Thread
#StopArmingSaudi
2/ The deal was brokered by the Canadian Commercial Corporation on behalf of General Dynamics Land Systems Canada. In spite of being brokered by the Canadian government, many details of the contract, if not most, remain completely secret.
3/ In early 2015, the war in Yemen began. The conflict has been repeatedly dubbed the world’s worst current humanitarian catastrophe. As of December 2020, according to UN OCHA, nearly a quarter-million Yemenis have died as a result of the war.
4/ KSA has used Canadian LAVs in the conflict, which is an illegal breach of Canadian export controls. This behaviour should come as no surprise, as KSA routinely and illicitly utilizes western weapons in the Yemeni war.
5/ Following the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, Canada put a pause on issuing new exports to the Kingdom to investigate the deal. Its findings, published April 2020, found no issue with the arms exports, contrary to outside expert opinion on the issue.
6/ The pause in new export approvals had no bearing on the hundreds of LAVs already approved for export to the Kingdom. LAV shipments to KSA doubled over this period.
7/ Canada frequently justifies the deal with its economic incentives. However, KSA remains billions of dollars in arrears for the arms deal. It remains unclear how the gov’t of Canada plans to secure these funds - but LAV exports continue.
8/ In Sept 2019, Canada acceded to the Arms Trade Treaty. Despite Canada facing more stringent international arms controls, the exports have continued without interruption.
9/ In 2020, for the first time, the UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen named and shamed Canada for supplying weapons to KSA, stating it is therefore “helping to perpetuate the conflict” in Yemen.
10/ Despite substantial evidence of Saudi human rights violations in Yemen, the government of Canada maintains these weapons pose “no substantial risk” to breach fundamental human rights norms.
11/ Since 2014, thousands of Cdns have called for the end of arms sales to KSA, and pressure only grows. The most recent joint letter urging PM Trudeau to cease the exports was endorsed by 39 civil society orgs including those from peace, human rights, labour + faith traditions.
12/ On this day, seven years after the deal was announced, Project Ploughshares continues to call on the government of to #StopArmingSaudi
to #StopArmingSaudi
