Cancelling the Saudi Arms Deal

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Globe and Mail of December 20, 2018, written in response to the December 18 op-ed by Bessma Momani of the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the Centre for International Governance Innovation, “Cancelling Canada’s Saudi arms deal would merely be a feel-good measure.”

Canada’s been selling armoured vehicles to the Saudis for almost 30 years, so it’s true that terminating one Canadian contract “will do little to stop the Saudis or alleviate the suffering of Yemenis.” No one has claimed otherwise.

But here are the pertinent questions. Do we want to promote a rules-based international order, and should those rules place restrictions on military sales to regimes engaged in the gross and systematic violation of the rights of their citizens? Should there be restrictions on the sales of weapons to states guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity?

You can buy these items in any size viagra sample india and flavor. Take all the stories about men who send tadalafil cheap off their hard-earned dollars expecting nights of passion to be couriered their way by return, only to find their money disappears and nothing appears in their mailboxes. However, http://abacojet.com/hello-world/ viagra usa pharmacy this pill will only work if you are sexually aroused. Partners, who constantly nag each other in front of their super generic viagra abacojet.com children. Canadian armoured vehicles go to the Saudi National Guard – its key attribute being loyalty to the royal family, and its key mandate being to protect the Saudi royals from dissidents, coup attempts and, ultimately, democracy. So, if you favour principled policies in support of a rules-based international order, should a state drawn to feminist values in its foreign policies be content to send weapons of repression to a state notorious for its systematic subordination of women?

Stopping the war in Yemen is a matter of extraordinary urgency – arms shipments are relevant, though stopping Canadian arms shipments will not be decisive. But a responsible military-export policy has many other objectives and dimensions, and honouring human rights and international humanitarian law should be very near the top.

Ernie Regehr, Waterloo, Ont.