Trudeau government seeks to end arms sale to Saudi Arabia

The Trudeau government appears to finally be taking a serious stance against the sale of armed vehicles to Saudi Arabia, a nation which is currently engaged in a disastrous war in Yemen. According to CTV News, the Prime Minister stated, "We are engaged with the export permits to try and see if there is a way of no longer exporting these vehicles to Saudi Arabia." While Canada is looking for a way to end a multi-billion dollar deal to sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, the country hasn’t yet figured out how to leave the agreement without paying billions in cancellation fees. Both the previous Conservative and the current Liberal governments were considered complete hypocrites on this issue as the deal was initiated under the previous Conservative government in 2014 but continued under the Liberals, and aimed to supply the Saudis with light armoured vehicles worth C$14.8bn. That deal had resoundingly bad press, including petitions from groups such as Amnesty International, due to the nation's notorious history of executing individuals for witchcraft, and bombing civilians.  In recent months, it has taken a decidedly worse turn given the recent trade spat between Canada and the Saudi, as well as the recent targeted killing of Jamal Khashoggi. That killing forced the Canadian government to suspend approvals of any new arms export permits for Saudi Arabia in October. This move adds Canada to the long list of nations such as Germany, Norway, and Finland which have taken steps to reduce or ban the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia. While the move is expected to bring a positive international press among fellow Western nations, it will likely hinder some of Canada's GDP growth this year. The 15-year deal would have likely provided a large number of benefits to the 3,000 people employed by General Dynamics Land Systems Canada, as well as the many others who would see a run on benefit in Western Ontario. While that deal is by no means small, it will now be up to the Canadian government to find replacement sellers for the vehicles. In one Globe and Mail article Steven Chase argues, the Canadian army could be an option. This is fairly interesting, as it could pivot one morally problematic contract into one which not only supports Canadian jobs but also further supports modernizing the already aged Canadian armed forces. Well except that it is our navy and air force that need the update... But forgoing that jump, the Canadian government would still once again be taking on further costs at a time when the deficit is spiralling well past $19 billion per year. While this bailout is politically necessitated, I fear at some point the government simply won't be able to pick up the bill, and we will simply not be able to pay the interest on the collective bailouts we have accepted. That could be as early as 2019. By then, sadly it may be too late to do anything different, and we may be left thinking, why did we place ourselves in a position in which we had to take on so many needless costs? Join the conversation by commenting below!