QUESTION PERIOD — Foreign Affairs
United Nations Arms Trade Treaty
April 20, 2023
Senator Gold, After more than eight years of armed conflict in Yemen, damning evidence reveals human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law by all warring parties, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has led a military intervention in Yemen since March 2015 and has conducted widespread attacks against civilian targets.
Since the beginning of the war, Canada has exported more than $8 billion in weapons to Saudi Arabia, including the types of arms deployed in battle. Since I previously questioned the government through you, multiple reports by expert international monitors have specifically denounced Canada’s continued arms exports as perpetuating the crisis.
Through an access-to-information request, there was recently a report, internal to Global Affairs, that further documented that Canada discusses internally the economic value of continuing with this practice with Saudi Arabia. These arms transfers violate Canada’s obligation under the Arms Trade Treaty to which this government acceded in 2019. Under Article 11, Canada is obligated to take measures to prevent diversion of its arms exports to third countries. While other countries have ceased their arms exports, Saudi Arabia is now the top non-U.S. destination for Canadian weapons.
Senator Gold, why won’t Canada comply with its obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty by ending its arms exports to Saudi Arabia?
Thank you for the question and for underlying the tragedy happening in Yemen. I wish that were the only place such things were happening.
Since 2020, the government has put into place a process whereby permits for exports of arms are not granted automatically but need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Canada continues to do that. It is the position of the government that it will continue to do that to ensure that this industry is carried on in a responsible way.
I have a quick question. The document that was recently revealed by the publication The Breach — through the access to information — indicated that Global Affairs Canada was emphasizing how Saudi Arabia is an important market for Canadian companies, including through large infrastructure contracts for SNC-Lavalin and Bombardier.
Could you help me understand how this fits with Canada’s feminist foreign policy?
That is a good question, but I don’t really have the ability to answer it adequately. Our relationships with the world — whether it’s commercial, political, strategic, intelligence sharing or others — are complex, polycentric and multi-faceted. In that regard, there is, no doubt, going to be tensions, pushes and pulls between the various objectives that characterize our foreign policy.
Canada’s feminist foreign policy is a serious engagement by this government, and, indeed, it is emulated and admired by others, and will continue to be, notwithstanding the fact that we live in a complicated, messy world — and our actions on behalf of Canadians, companies and individuals may not always line up with everyone’s expectations of what the priority should be.
