Editor:
On Sept. 17, Canada signed on to the global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Canada is the 105th state party to do so, nearly five years after the treaty was established.
The goal of “Canada’s accession to the ATT should be about more than a simple strengthening of national export control standards,” write Cesar Jaramillo and Kenneth Epps of Project Ploughshares. “Canada is the third-largest arms supplier to Saudi Arabia in recent years, as well as a supplier to other Middle Eastern states fighting in Yemen. There may be an economic price to pay to comply with domestic and international arms control regulations. But the human cost of an unregulated arms trade is much higher.”
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s worst violators of human and women’s rights. As a signator of the ATT, Canada’s foreign minister is now obliged to review the risks that weapons transfers could be used to commit serious violations of human rights.
We share humanity with all, and therefore urge our foreign affairs minister, Francois-Phillippe Champagne, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to review and cancel all further shipments of weaponry to Saudi Arabia. It is a shameful trade.
If you feel concern about Global Affairs Canada, which ignores the links between weaponry and human rights violations committed by Saudi Arabia, write or email our foreign affairs minister, Champagne, and our prime minister, Trudeau.
Let us begin the new year with consciousness of our shared humanity.
Julie Gleadow, Roberts Creek
