While I continue to have a guarded optimism about our new government, there are troubling signs that suggest that it has some conspicuous blind spots. Not only are the Trudeau Liberals showing every sign of carrying through with the very contentious Saudi arms deal, but it appears now they are expanding their Middle East customer base.
The Canadian government is busy promoting Canada’s defence industry in Kuwait even as a United Nations report accuses a Saudi-led coalition, which includes Kuwait, of “widespread and systematic” bombing of civilians in Yemen.Essentially embroiled in a civil war between the Houthi and the elected government, Yemen has become part of a regional power struggle between Shia-ruled Iran and Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, which shares a long border with Yemen. Unfortunately, that power struggle is costing many, many civilian lives.
A leaked UN panel report last week attributed 60 per cent, or 2,682, civilian deaths and injuries in the Yemen conflict to air-launched explosive weapons and said the Saudi-led coalition’s actions are a “grave violation of the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution” and violate international law.Like many countries in the Middle East, Kuwait has a sorry human-rights record:
Targets in Yemen, the UN report found, have included refugee camps; weddings; civilian vehicles, such as buses; homes; medical facilities; schools; mosques; factories and civilian infrastructure.
According to Amnesty International, even peaceful criticism of Islam and the emir, the ruling head of state, remains criminalized. The rights watchdog says human-rights activists and political reformers are among those targeted for arrest, detention and prosecution. Authorities have prosecuted and imprisoned critics who express dissent through social media and they have curtailed the right to public assembly, Amnesty says.Although sales to Kuwait at this point seem to be limited to a flight simulator, the problem is Canada's openness to other military sales to the country. The head of the business Council of Canada, John Manley,
cautioned that blocking trade with foreign countries is a decision that should not be made lightly.For its part, the Trudeau government is pleading both ignorance (the Foreign Affairs depart claims not to have read the UN report) and a historical relationship with Kuwait:
“It’s grounds to have a conversation,” he said of the UN report, adding, however, that “you’re not going to get the next deal if you can’t be relied upon.”
... department of Global Affairs spokeswoman Rachna Mishra said, “Kuwait has been a strategic partner for Canada in the Middle East for over 50 years, and we value our close relationship with them.”So there we have it: a bit of obfuscation, some corporate influence/pressure and a vague departmental justification - not exactly a recipe to inspire confidence in our new government.
Yeah, well, there you have it, Lorne. Once you take away the tinsel you're left with Kinder Morgan, the eastern pipeline, the Saudi arms deal and TPP as the true face of what is, not what we might have hoped. Makes a guy proud to be a Green, Lorne. The only party that's been against all of that (and C-51) right from the get go. Unlike Mulcair, Elizabeth May didn't need to find out which way the winds were blowing before taking a stand.
ReplyDeleteIt's all ridiculously simple. If the world is to have any reasonable hope of the 2C target, 80 per cent of known fossil reserves have to be left in the ground and that means starting with the highest cost/highest carbon forms - coal and bitumen.
People are dying. People are losing their livelihoods and their homes. People are being put to flight - migrants, refugees - every day. We pretend this is about jobs, jobs, jobs - at home.
What have we become?
It is clearly time for much reflection on the part of all Canadians, Mound. From reading your blog regularly I am acutely aware of the perils facing all of us, perils that most governments barely acknowledge. it is enough to cause one to lose hope that total catastrophe can be avoided.
DeleteFrom Peacekeeper to Arms Dealer. That's not progress, Lorne.
ReplyDeleteIt's time the government understands that we can't have it both ways, Owen.
Delete.. be sure to review who 'our' current Ambassador to Kuwait is... still Harper's ex bodyguard? Let me know if you can find a person on Planet Earth who can explain that appointment.. aside from Steve or Ray Novak ...
ReplyDeleteIn the twisted world those two inhabit, I am sure it makes perfect sense, Salamander. For those of us from Planet Earth, not so much.
DeleteI too have a guarded optimism Lorne, my gut though is telling me something different. I do not like obsfucation. In fact I despise it. It usually means at the very least our government is hiding something or at the worst their getting ready to lie to us.I still don't know how you sell arms to a country that chops peoples heads off and is now in another country, Yemen, bombing civilians. I would like to know what Trudeau and the other Libs involved in the Saudi deal told themselves.
ReplyDeleteI suspect, Pamela, that the Liberals have the same capacity for self-justification as the previous government did.
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