Rating: NNNNN
We shouldn’t take much comfort from the feds’ coy rebuff of the U.S. “Axis of Evil” warmongering. We’re already producing and exporting some of the most lethal weaponry known to humankind. They’re being shipped out as we speak to dictatorships all over the world. And they call us peacekeepers.Military-industrial might
Total value of military exports in 2000, according to Foreign Affairs: $477,611,246
Total value according to defence industry contractors: $4 billion
Percentage increase over 1999: 10
Total value of military exports to the U.S.: $1.25 billion
Where Canada ranks among nations in military exports to the U.S.: 8th
Number of Canuck defence contractors doing business in Canada: approximately 1,700
Number of Canadian defence companies doing business abroad: 82
Number of Canadians employed in the defence industry: 33,000
What we export
small arms, automatic weapons, large-calibre armaments, bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, military and armoured vehicles, explosives, military aircraft and helicopters, aero-engines, electronic equipment and simulators
Blood money
Countries in armed conflict to which Canada has supplied military equipment in the last 10 years:
Algeria, Bangladesh, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka
Countries currently targeted for export of Canadian military goods:
China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, KuwaitTrashing human rights
Countries cited for human rights abused but receiving Canadian military exports anyway:
Argentina (firearms), Bahrain (ammunition), Brazil (pack howitzers, aircraft and helicopter parts), Chile (firearms), Egypt (large-calibre ammo, aircraft parts), Indonesia (simulator parts), Israel (aircraft parts), Jordan (helicopter parts), Peru (heli parts), Philippines (large-calibre ammo), Saudi Arabia (aircraft parts), Tanzania (firearms), Thailand (firearms, heavy-calibre ammo, heli parts) and Zimbabwe (firearms)
What Foreign Affairs says
“Controlling all sales to all military organizations would not help bring peace to the world, as it would not be possible to prevent civilian organizations from reselling goods to military buyers. It would hurt legitimate world trade as well as the employers and employees who produce those products, and governments are not prepared to erect such wide-ranging barriers to trade in commercial goods. If abuses are in terms of small arms, then selling tanks makes sense because there is still a legitimate defence need.”
What NGOs say
“Canada is contravening its own guidelines on the export of military goods. Close control does not necessarily mean denial of sales. Commercial benefits often override human rights concerns.”
