Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s meeting with the Dalai Lama last month was received warmly by most Canadians, despite stringent objections from the Chinese government. It seemed a subject of national pride that the federal government took a principled stand against the Communist regime noted for its persistent human rights violations, and welcomed a man whose name is virtually synonymous with non-violence.
It should then come as unwelcome surprise to many of us that the Canadian company. a Pratt & Whitney subsidiary, is currently being investigated by the U.S. State Department for possible arms control violations for its Chinese attackhelicopters. Astonishingly, the Canadian government has no plans to conduct an investigation of its own. Even as we applaud our government’s token diplomatic gestures, millions of dollars’ worth of hi-tech military equipment is quietly being made in this country and exported to China and other unsavory regimes.
This most recent demonstration of hypocrisy merely illuminates the secretive nature of Canada’s military industry, which is not being appropriately disclosed to the public. This is a significant liability to a government, whose foreign policy includes support for a new United Nationsled international arms-trade treaty. If Canada secretly exports arms to global hot spots, we lose the moral high ground of condemning other nations for the same activities.
A recent investigation by CBC’s Margo Kelly recently revealed not only the sharp growth in Canadian military exports as of late, but, more troublingly, the federal government’s complete lack of transparency. Embarrassingly, Canada’s current level of divulgence, as measured by the Small Arms Survey, is just slightly ahead of Iran. A lethal combination of corporate greed and bureaucratic red tape raises the troubling possibility that Canadian military technology might be contributing to a number of deadly conflicts around the world.
Over the past seven years, Canadian military exports have increased three-fold, making us the sixth largest arms dealer in the world, just slightly behind China. This growth has nothing to do with the latest Conservative government, as the trend can be observed as far back as 2002. Our self-endearing image as a peacekeeping nation surely requires re-evaluation, for there is a troubling contradiction in preaching global peace while making profits off the instruments of violence.
Canadians should not delude ourselves into thinking we ship military exports only to the most respectable of governments. A quick run through the list of buyers quickly does away with such notions: $527 million in military exports went to Saudi Arabia, a Wahhabist absolute monarchy which imposes severe limitations on the rights of women. Canada has also sold over $17 million in military arms to the Shi’ite-controlled Iraqi government, which is undeniably culpable in that country’s ethnic violence.
As troubling as these examples may appear, they are overshadowed by the nearly $2-billions’ worth of Canadian arms bought by the United States. Night vision goggles, ammunition, missile components, unmanned aerial vehicles, and light-armored vehicles are just some of the equipment Canada sells to the U.S. The very real harm inflicted by these arms—in Iraq and elsewhere— should be obvious to all but the willingly naïve. However, the industry represents about 70,000 technology-based jobs across Canada, and this presents a huge political obstacle in the way of more stringent regulations. Ultimately, we will have to decide whether our growing military exports are in line with our moral values, and whether we are willing to shed a long-held aspect of our national identity.
