This article was originally published on Talk, an independent and non-profit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site.

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By Jeremy Wildman, international development fellow, University of Bath and Anthony Fenton, PhD (ABD), York University, Canada

In August 2018, relations between Canada and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia seem to have broken down in the most public and modern way: via Twitter.

It began with mild criticism from canadian foreign Minister Christy Freeland about some long-standing human rights abuses in the Kingdom. In response, the Saudi government immediately suspended diplomatic relations with Canada and suspended a number of trade, investment and educational deals.

According to many, Canada appears to take a principled position that puts human rights above monetary gain. This seems befitting of liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who presents himself and his government as leaders in the fight against climate change, international law, human rights, LGBT rights and women’s rights. This includes an explicit feminist foreign policy.

The polar opposite?

Trudeau’s Canada has also proved to be the polar opposite of the conservative Kingdom, notorious for denying women basic rights such as the right to drive a car or travel without the consent of a male guardian. Shame includes the frequent use of the death penalty. Public beheadings and crucifixions are regularly flogged in cases of public protest, homosexuality and witchcraft.

The rift between Canada and Saudi Arabia escalated after the kidnapping and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. Khashoggi was a Saudi dissident living in exile in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a journalist for the Washington post.

Khashoggi was scheduled to visit Canada this fall. In Canada, he collaborated with another Saudi in exile, Omar Abdulaziz. They were working on a project designed to challenge and make the Pro-Saudi monarchy of Internet trolls.

It was part of a broader effort by Saudi liberal reformers to open the Kingdom to change, starting with paths for free speech. This was actually the point of contention for the August 2018 split. Tweet Freeland was on behalf of the imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, human rights activist and his sister-reformer Zamarbide.

Less publicly, Canada supports an independent investigation into allegations of war crimes against Saudi Arabia in the Yemen region. Canada has also joined several EU States to welcome recent Saudi reforms, condemning ongoing human rights abuses.

However, these actions are outweighed by Canada’s uneasy support for Saudi Arabia’s role in the Yemeni country’s civil war.

Tory support

It began in March 2015, just after the Saudi-led coalition entered the civil war. Rob Nicholson, at that time Minister of foreign Affairs of the conservatives, has publicly praised Saudi Arabia for its actions:

Ottawa backed those comments with large-scale arms exports to help Saudi Arabia wage war.

According to the now declassified memo, the argument was that they would be useful to Saudi Arabia’s efforts to “counter instability” in the Yemen region.

Most would agree that the Saudi-led coalition is influencing the war in the Yemen region, but not balancing it.

A recent report to the United Nations prepared By the organization’s panel of experts on the Yemen issue stated that”… the continued supply of arms to the parties to the conflict in Yemen perpetuates the conflict and the suffering of the population.”

This includes the deaths of 100,000 people and millions of starving people.

Trouble finding weapons to buy

More recently, Belgian authorities have canceled arms shipments to Saudi Arabia, although it is unclear whether the ban includes towers heading to Canada to be installed on Saudi-linked PDAs.

Despite these efforts and the efforts of the United States Congress to block arms sales due to the human rights situation in the Yemen region, Canada has not followed suit. While the Trudeau government announced a” renegotiation ” of deals with Saudi Arabia in October 2018, it allowed that to drag on by allowing arms shipments on an undisclosed number of existing permits.

That includes at least CDN $ 1.34 billion worth of exports after Khashoggi’s assassination.

Canada’s continued involvement

While the Trudeau government has announced it will not allow new export permits during the review, it may be nothing more than a symbolic gesture. The determined Saudi government has already announced its own ban on any new dealings with canadian companies.

Although none of the newly produced LAVs have yet been seen in Yemen, old model canadian-made LAVs and sniper rifles are regularly seen in combat footage loaded by Saudi and Yemeni forces. The war in the Yemen region has also been inundated with armored vehicles manufactured by other canadian companies such as the UAE-based Streit Group, Terradyne Armored and IAG.

The engines of the canadian production nourish the coalition aircraft, led by Saudi Arabia, attack aircraft and helicopters. These aircraft also have canadian-made targeting systems. Canada has supplied drones to Saudi Arabia and surveillance aircraft to the UAE, while the canadian company is training drone pilots from the UAE.

There are also unconfirmed reports that canadian weapons may have been illegally diverted to Yemeni forces fighting on the coalition side.

Much of this “canadian content” is the result of increased government support for the canadian defense industry’s efforts to gain a foothold in the lucrative arms market in the middle East. It started with Stephen Harper’s conservative government but is backed by Trudeau.

Business as usual

Despite several high-profile cases in which Canada has supported individual women and reformers in the Kingdom, it appears to advocate for perceived economic benefits over human rights values.

While Canada is increasing its aid budget for Yemen, it means little compared to the devastation caused by the weapons and training it sells – selling this force to a conflict that has deepened gender inequality, threatening the devastated Yemeni region with a three-pronged divide.

Freeland recently said, however, that the Kingdom remains ” an important partner for Canada.”

Whether Trudeau or conservative leader Andrew Scheer form a government after the October 21 election, both appear set to travel to Saudi Arabia in November 2020 for a G20 summit that will be used to restore the image of Saudi Arabia’s crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, tarnished by his involvement in Khashoggi’s gruesome murder.

During the current election campaign, only the NDP and the green party of Canada pledged to cancel the agreement with Saudi Arabia. And only the new Democrats suggested that his government would not attend the G20 summit in Riyadh.

Such a visit would otherwise offer the canadian government an opportunity to compensate Saudi Arabia by telling the canadian public that they are pressuring the Kingdom on human rights while continuing business as usual.

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This article is republished from “Conversation under Creative Commons license”. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read the original article:

https://theconversation.com/trading-values-to-sell-weapons-the-canada-saudi-relationship-124961

Jeremy Wildman, international development fellow, University of Bath and Anthony Fenton, PhD (ABD), York University, Canada, Canadian press

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