The Trudeau government, already battling criticism for the $15-billion sale of weaponized vehicles to Saudi Arabia, wants to ramp up its defence and security exports to the Middle East.
The Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Crown agency that promotes exports, is advertising on its website for a director of business development and sales for the Middle East, to be based in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
“The successful candidate will increase sales opportunities in the Middle East in the defence/security and infrastructure/international commercial business sectors,” reads the posting.
“The director’s focus is on seeking, analyzing, evaluating and developing existing and future business opportunities in the Middle East that can be filled by Canadian suppliers through a government-to-government contracting mechanism.”
The successful candidate must be able to obtain and maintain a valid Top Secret security clearance. The deadline for applicants to the $107,000 to $141,000 a year job closes next Wednesday.
MCpl Dan Pop / Canadian Army Public AffairsA light armoured vehicle from General Dynamics Land Systems Canada in London, Ontario in 2013.
Canada has weathered criticism both at home and overseas for the $15-billion deal to sell Light Armoured Vehicles, made by General Dynamics Land Systems of London, Ont., to the Saudi national guard.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he does not want to go back on the deal, negotiated by the previous Conservative government.
Still, Stéphane Dion, his minister of foreign affairs, told reporters at the United Nations in New York this week that Canada will strengthen rules on sales of weapons “to ensure that the equipment that we sell is not misused.”
Dion’s office and the ministry did not respond Thursday to requests for comment. CCC also did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.
John Polanyi, a Nobel laureate in chemistry at the University of Toronto, cited UN reports that Saudi Arabia is targeting civilians as it bombs its neighbour, Yemen, and said “We have, therefore, a moral and legal obligation to reconsider the sale of this large number of lethal armoured vehicles.”
European Union legislators last month approved an arms embargo to Saudi Arabia, and this week the Dutch parliament called on its government to stop weapons sales to the Middle Eastern kingdom.
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At the International Defence Exhibition and Conference in Abu Dhabi last year, the local newspaper The National reported that Canada spent $2.5 million on its sales pavilion, where 53 Canadian companies displayed their wares.
Martin Zablocki, the head of CCC, told the newspaper that “with the money being spent in the Middle East, it’s a strategic region for Canada.”
Nelson Wiseman, director of the Canadian Studies Program at the University of Toronto, is not surprised that Canada wants to boost arms sales in the Middle East.
“Canada has the capacity to produce a lot of weapons that most states do not,” he said. “The dilemma you are going to have is ‘What Middle East countries do not have debatable human rights records?’ ”
“Saudi is a human rights violator, but that’s the case with Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Syria and Egypt, too.”
The dilemma you are going to have is ‘What Middle East countries do not have debatable human rights records?’
Cesar Jasmillo at Project Ploughshares, a disarmament organization based in Waterloo, Ont., advised Canada to be careful about making more Middle East arms deals.
“There is nothing inherently wrong or immoral in looking for new markets,” Jasmillo said. “But if Canada is looking for new markets in countries that have questionable or abysmal human rights records, they should take tremendous care so they don’t end up with a hot potato like Saudi Arabia.”
Hélène Laverdière, NDP critic for foreign affairs, said, “we need to ensure that our arms don’t fall into the wrong hands.” She has proposed that Parliament create a subcommittee on arms export controls.
“The U.K. has such a committee,” she said. “It looks at processes and makes recommendations, and also creates more transparency.”
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