Saudi penalty ‘in the billions’: PM

The price for registering Canada’s outrage over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi went up exponentially Thursday, as Justin Trudeau revealed the penalty for cancelling a $15billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia would be “in the billions of dollars.”

The prime minister blamed Stephen Harper’s previous Conservative government — which signed the contract to sell light armoured vehicles to the desert kingdom — for making it so costly to cancel and for making it impossible for him to publicly reveal the exact figure.

But he was accused by the NDP of inventing numbers to justify not cancelling the contract.

Earlier this week, Trudeau signalled his reluctance to cancel the deal, saying he didn’t want “to leave Canadians holding a billion-dollar bill because we are trying to move forward on doing the right thing.”

During a news conference Thursday with Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Trudeau was pressed to say if that was a precise figure. He said the “extremely difficult contract” signed by the Harper government included a requirement for “total confidentiality” which prevents him from disclosing details.

But he added: “Suffice it to say possible penalties would be in the billions of dollars but that is something we are looking at right now.”

Trudeau also said that the government is “actively reviewing existing export permits” for arms to Saudi Arabia.