Let’s not sell weapons to killers

Canada, having allowed the sale of weapons to a regime that habitually abuses human rights, is shocked and appalled that this very regime has used Canadian-sold weapons to abuse human rights.

Representatives of not one but two Canadian governments — a previous Conservative government that in its steadfast avarice struck a $15-billion arms deal with the devil, and a current Liberal government that in its flippant cynicism signed off on it — are, with great conviction, taking turns promising and demanding the most rigorous of investigations into the alleged war criminal they have each aided and abetted.

“The minister is deeply concerned about this situation and has asked officials to review it immediately,” promises the Liberal government.

“The government should respond to tangible evidence. … If there is evidence, we expect the government to act and to suspend and terminate those contracts,” demands the Conservative now-opposition.

They speak of Saudi Arabia, which apparently paused its targeting of schools, hospitals, marketplaces and weddings in Yemen to reload with some made-in-Canada ammo in its own Eastern Province. If video footage is to be believed, Canada, through yet another weapons deal (beyond that $15-billion one), has facilitated a multiple homicide by handing the murder weapons to a killer.

In defiance of domestic export rules, international treaties and basic respect for human life, two major Canadian political parties enable Saudi Arabia’s human rights abuses. And they will not rest, damn it, until they get to the bottom of their own terrible misdeeds.

They will, then, be relieved to know that there is indeed tangible evidence that the situation about which they are so deeply concerned has an obvious culprit, and it is themselves.

But to assist the prosecutors in establishing their own guilt, might I suggest that their investigation into these apparent murders begin with actual rules that have been broken, rather than with the more relaxed rules they wish existed, such that their transgressions would not be transgressive at all.

Some members of the guilty parties say — nay, declare! — that weapons contracts must be cancelled with Saudi Arabia if it is established with even greater certainty that Canadian weapons have been used to murder innocent Saudi people … and not one moment before. Unfortunately, Canadian export rules, as well as the moral principle of not being a sociopath, recognize that governments have a duty to decline to facilitate the killing of civilians, not merely to respond with indignation once some have been killed. These rules stipulate that weapons will not be sold where there is a chance that the buyer may aim them at its own people.

Of course, there has always been a very good chance that Saudi Arabia would abuse Canadian weapons.

The wrongdoing of the Liberals and Conservatives isn’t contingent on whether Saudi Arabia has committed certain wrongs with weapons made in a certain country and, if so, whether Canada continues supplying it with still more weapons. Responsibility to human life does not begin only after innocent lives have been taken.

Going forward, however, perhaps the Liberals and Conservatives can find comfort in one thing at least. In a world where most matters of international affairs are disconcertingly grey, this guideline is reassuringly stark: Don’t sell weapons to murderers.

It doesn’t matter if the murderer offers you a lot of money — lives are worth more than money.

It doesn’t matter if the murderer could perhaps find another willing seller — better not, overall, to race to the bottom when the bottom is a mass grave.

It doesn’t even matter if the murderer may, in theory, decide to use a weapon to defend your friends after using it to murder innocent people, or if they aren’t as bad as other murderers, or if they ask for the murder weapon really, really nicely.

Don’t sell weapons to murderers.

The Liberals and Conservatives allowed Canadian companies to sell weapons to a murderer, and whether or not there is already blood on their hands, there is shame of the highest order. Shannon Gormley is an Ottawa Citizen global affairs columnist and a freelance journalist.