Court to Rule on Canada’s $15Bn Saudi Arms Deal

(Source: The Globe and Mail; published Dec. 18, 2016)

OTTAWA --- The federal government is defending its decision to export combat vehicles to Saudi Arabia by arguing in court that the Canadian Foreign Minister has such broad authority to green-light weapons shipments he could allow deliveries even if there was a real risk they could be used to commit human-rights violations.

The government finds itself on the hot seat this week over Stéphane Dion’s April granting of export permits for a $15-billion deal to sell weaponized armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, a country with an abysmal human-rights record that stands accused by a United Nations panel of violating international humanitarian law with repeated strikes that have killed civilians in neighbouring Yemen.

A lawsuit to block the shipments of fighting vehicles to Riyadh will be heard in Federal Court in Montreal with oral arguments taking place Monday and Tuesday.

Justice Danièle Lamer-Tremblay is hearing the case, which was brought by University of Montreal law professor Daniel Turp with legal assistance from the firm of Trudel Johnston & Lespérance.

Those behind the application for judicial review of Mr. Dion’s actions argue the Foreign Minister’s decision to allow the combat vehicles – equipped with machine guns and anti-tank cannons – to be sent to Saudi Arabia fails the test for arms sales adopted by federal cabinet in 1986 and still in force today. It says Canada will “closely control” arms exports to countries with a persistent record of serious human-rights violations unless there is “no reasonable risk” that the arms would be used against civilians.

Mr. Turp and his legal team argue there is more than enough evidence that Saudi Arabia might misuse the vehicles by turning them against civilians. (end of excerpt)

Click here for the full story, on the Globe & Mail website.

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