The inking of the arms deal with Saudi Arabia by Harper government was a triumph of realpolitik over Canada's international human rights obligations. Saudi Arabia has one of the worst human rights records in the world. It has just beheaded 47 people including a peaceful activist Shiite Cleric.

The deal appears to violate Canada's export control rules that require satisfactory review of the human rights record of the purchasing country along with an agreement to not use the weapons against civilians. The deal with Saudis appears to contain no such end use clause and it certainly couldn't have passed muster on the human rights front.  

Most Canadians were elated when Justin Trudeau had stated at COP21 in Paris "Canada is back". Many assumed this to mean more principled, rigorous and transparent approach to foreign and trade policy. It was hoped that a Trudeau government might rescind the arms contract. Lloyd Axworthy, a prominent Liberal colleague and Former External affairs minister of Canada, has expressed disappointment at the government's refusal to do so.

The arms deal with the Saudis is definitely unprincipled. But it pales in comparison with the larger problem Saudi Arabia represents on the world stage.  The National Post Journalist Kyle Mathews is correct when he writes that "Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Muslim country that practices a very conservative form of Islam known as Wahabbism.  The country also goes to great lengths and spends vast sums of oil money to promote Wahabbism across the world...The...release of the 'Saudi cables' by WikiLeaks has led to a number of worrisome facts about the Saudi Arabian government and their influence on the world stage as an agent of extremism...From Mali to Nigeria, Pakistan to Syria, Egypt to Libya, Canada to France, extremism and violence are often linked to the particular Wahabbist ideology and belief system  that emanates out of Saudi Arabia...The Saudis have been funding Islamic schools and other organisations  that promote Wahabbism around the world in places like India and Canada."

It is a fact that vast majority of the Sunni Mosques and schools in Canada, US and Western Europe have been wholly or partially supported by Saudi money. The Senate of Canada reported last year that it heard troubling evidence that " to promote their own fundamentalist brand of Islam - Wahhabism -here in Canada wealthy Saudis, Qataris and Kuwaitis are using charities as conduits to finance Canadian mosques and community centres." It is believed many Canadian Sunni mosques/ schools have received $250,000 from the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah. Over the last several decades Saudis have been the main funders of the thousands of Madrassas - religious schools - that some call terror factories, in Pakistan that have trained and continue to train Wahhabi fighters for Taliban and other terrorist outfits.

The New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman sums up the impact of the Saudi promoted Wahhabi philosophy in the world:  " Nothing has been more corrosive to the stability and modernisation of the Arab world, and the Muslim world at large, than the billions and billions of dollars the Saudis have invested since the 1970s into wiping out the pluralism of Islam - the Sufi, moderate Sunni and Shiite versions - and imposing in its place the puritanical, anti-modern, anti-women, anti-Western, anti-pluralistic Wahhabi Salafist brand of Islam promoted by the Saudi religious establishment."

The world has witnessed the tragedies that can be directly traced to the extremist teachings of Wahabism: Osama bin Laden inspired 9/11 - most of the 9/11 terrorists including bin Laden were Wahhabi Saudis; the 7/7 London Underground attacks; Mumbai 26/11 terrorist attacks; Chalie Hebdo and the recent Paris attacks as well as numerous others. ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Shabab and many more like them are products of the Wahhabi extremist puritanical teachings. The Toronto 18, CP Rail terrorists and the several other incidents in Canada were all directly or indirectly inspired by ISIS' which follows the puritanical Whabbism  

And the new Liberal government (I am a Liberal and publicly supported our new Prime Minister in the leadership and the election campaign) that so enthusiastically declared to the world "Canada is back" says it won't re-examine and rescind an arms deal with the brutal human rights denier and the ultimate font of much of the terror currently plaguing the world.

 

Mr. Prime Minister, Bring Canada back in deed. Rescind the weapons/arms deal with Saudi Arabia, the ultimate source of terror!