Weapons export permits delayed after Saudi controversy

Aimed at nations that breach rights laws

OTTAWA • The federal government has slowed the approval process for weapons exports dramatically in recent years, the result of controversy over arms deals with Saudi Arabia and other nations with poor human rights records.

Canadian weapons manufacturers need governmentissued export permits to sell “controlled goods” — which can include anything from sniper rifles to militarygrade body armour — outside the country. When a manufacturer reaches a deal to sell such goods, Global Affairs Canada sometimes conducts a “consultation,” or review, that is supposed to be completed within 40 days.

But in 2017, GAC failed to conclude its review of 228 permit applications within the standard 40-day window, up from 65 applications in 2016, thanks to what the government says are increased efforts to stem the flow of arms to nations that breach human rights laws.

GAC is “holding ourselves to a higher standard on the export of controlled goods from Canada, very much including with respect to human rights,” Adam Austen, a spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, said in a statement Tuesday.

“Should the Minister be concerned about serious potential violations of human rights, she has the power to reject new permit applications and suspend existing permits, as she has done before.” Austen did not specify which specific permits Freeland has rejected or suspended.

Ottawa did approve 3,013 export permits requiring consultations in 2017, or 92 per cent of the total number of applications. But that was lower than the 3,533 permits approved within its standards in 2016, or 98 per cent of the total. The permits include all nations that buy arms from Canada, 34 of which were for Saudi Arabia in 2017.

The increased delays appear to have begun after reports in the Globe and Mail in 2016 that suggested Canadian-made light armoured vehicles (LAVS) were used by a Saudi-led coalition in its fight against Houthi rebels in Yemen, where thousands of civilians have been killed.

The reports brought renewed attention to Canada’s weapons exports and prompted human rights groups to call on Prime Minster Justin Trudeau to reconsider the $15-billion LAV sale, which Ottawa has said is the largest advanced manufacturing export contract in Canada’s history. The LAVS are manufactured in London, Ont., by General Dynamics Land Systems.

Those calls to reconsider arms contracts with Saudi Arabia have been reignited in recent weeks, after dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi was reportedly murdered and then dismembered in the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in early October.

Trudeau has said Ottawa is now reviewing permits for arms sales to Saudi Arabia, but has warned cancelling the LAV deal in particular could cost “billions.”

“We continue to work with our allies around the world to ensure that we have answers about what happened to Jamal Khashoggi,” Trudeau told reporters last week. “As I said, we are looking at export permits for Saudi Arabia.”

Meanwhile, representatives of Canadian weapons manufacturers say the slowdown in export permit approvals has unfairly hobbled operations for some businesses. Christyn Cianfarani, president and CEO of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries, said she supports attempts by Ottawa to protect human rights, but the permitting delays between 2016 and 2017 has caused friction between some Canadian manufacturers and their trading partners.

“While a one-year increase is not a trend, we hope the government will keep monitoring and resourcing the permitting system so they are able to respect their own service standards,” she said.

In particular, she said any human rights concerns from Global Affairs should be addressed much earlier in the process, and should set clearer guidelines around which countries Canadian firms can trade with. Some manufacturers have invested heavily in major contracts only to have their export permits delayed at the last minute.

“In our opinion, it shouldn’t happen at the permits stage,” she said. “The permit stage is when companies have often times already invested millions of dollars pursuing an opportunity in a country.”

Alex Payne, director of programs at Colt Canada, said the company has not noticed widespread delays in securing export permits. He said the firm met slight delays on a recent contract in Botswana, but overall he said the permitting process appears more or less unchanged.

“As long as we have the paperwork filled out correctly it stands a really good chance of going through smoothly,” he said.

Colt Canada supplies weapons to the Canadian Armed Forces as well as foreign buyers. In summer 2017 it announced a new contract to supply a fleet of 1,148 new C6A1 machine guns to the Canadian military.

The pressure on Ottawa over arms contracts with Saudi Arabia comes after years of worsening relations between the two countries, according to Thomas Juneau, an expert on international affairs at the University of Ottawa.

Those tensions came to a head on Aug. 3 when GAC sent out a tweet saying it was “gravely concerned” about the arrests of several women’s rights activists, spurring a backlash from Saudi officials.

The fallout was a long time coming, according to analysts. The tweet brought the relationship between the two nations to a standstill, disrupting a concerted effort over several years by Saudi heads of state to expand diplomatic and trade ties with Canada. The LAV sale was a crucial part of that growing relationship, viewed by the Saudis as a sign of good will, Juneau said.

“Saudi Arabia doesn’t buy these weapons because it actually needs the weapons, primarily,” he said. “It buys these weapons as an investment in the partnership.”

The LAV deal with Saudi Arabia was first signed under the Harper government, but in April 2016 the Liberals signed off on a portion of the exports related to the deal.

Saudi Arabia technically is Canada’s largest market for arms sales outside of the U.S., comprising 48 per cent of non-u.s. exports in 2017. However, excluding the onetime LAV sale, that number is closer to two per cent of non-u.s. exports, behind such countries as Turkey (4.6 per cent), Germany (6.3 per cent) and the United Kingdom (8.6 per cent).

Canada sold $497 million in military goods to Saudi Arabia in 2017. The permits granted included $13 million for “smooth-bore weapons with a calibre of less than 20 mm” and a $2,094 contract under a category for “bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges.” Another $25 million fell under a category for “fire control” and “related alerting and warning equipment.” The value of the LAV sale, which is spread out over 14 years, totalled $454 million in 2017.

SAUDI ARABIA DOESN’T BUY THESE WEAPONS BECAUSE IT ACTUALLY NEEDS THE WEAPONS.

WAYNE CUDDINGTON / POSTMEDIA NEWS FILES Canadian-made and -exported LAV 6 armoured troop carriers such as this were used by a Saudi-led coalition in its fight against Houthi rebels in Yemen, where thousands of civilians have been killed.