Don’t sell these copters

The Trudeau government is proving to be an awfully slow learner when it comes to arms sales and human rights.

It is still dealing with awkward questions arising from the sale of light armoured vehicles (LAVs), manufactured in Ontario, to Saudi Arabia.

And now comes word that Canada is selling16 combat helicopters to the Philippines, a country whose president openly boasts about trampling on human rights.

It’s all the more puzzling since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau personally upbraided President Rodrigo Duterte on the issue at a summit meeting in Manila just last November. That earned Trudeau a public rebuke from Duterte, who said that questioning him about his bloody war on drugs amounts to a “personal and official insult.”

It’s not as if Duterte is coy about where he stands. He brags about shooting drug dealers and users when he was a local mayor. He even boasted at one point that he once threw a man accused of murder out of a helicopter: “I have done this before; why would I not do it again?”

So approving the sale of helicopters, of all things, to the Philippine military is richly ironic. The deal, brokered by Canada Commercial Corp. and worth $234 million (U.S.), is for Bell 412 copters to be manufactured at a plant near Montreal.

Global Affairs Canada tried to put the best face on the deal by saying the aircraft will be used for “disaster relief, search and rescue, passenger transport and utility transport,” which sounds fairly innocent.

But it turns out that, according to the top Philippine general involved, they will be simply used for “the military’s internal security operations” — which covers pretty much everything and anything.

It could mean some aspect of Duterte’s crackdown on drug dealing and drug use, which human rights groups say has involved killing some 12,000 people (including scores of children) without the niceties of arrest or trial. The so-called “extrajudicial killings” are the president’s signature policy, and he makes no apologies for it.

The Philippine government is also involved in long-term campaigns against Islamist extremists and a Maoist rebel group in the southern part of the country. Last summer, the Philippine air force conducted a major strike on Islamist forces in the town of Marawi, killing more than a thousand people.

Duterte has told his police and military not to worry too much about collateral damage, i.e. innocent bystanders, when they go after their targets. So the chances that the Canadian-made combat helicopters could be involved in operations against Philippine civilians is distinctly high.

This goes against both common decency and the government’s own rules governing the sales of arms. Ottawa must have assurances that weapons sold by Canadian companies will not be used by a foreign government against its own citizens. Indeed, the Trudeau government has put forward a bill to strengthen those provisions.

It did that because of concerns following the sale of LAVs to Saudi Arabia, which uses similar vehicles in its war in Yemen and against rebels in its Eastern Province. That deal, worth $15 billion, was agreed to by the Harper government, so the Liberals could reasonably argue that their hands were tied. They couldn’t just arbitrarily cancel the contract without putting in question Canada’s word in international dealings.

None of that applies with the Philippine sale. It’s a bad idea and should be stopped. The government should not issue the export permits needed to ensure the helicopters are actually delivered.

On Wednesday, when the sale became public and immediately attracted criticism, International Trade Minister FrançoisPhilippe Champagne said the government will review the whole deal. And Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told the Commons that she will conduct “an extremely rigorous human rights analysis” and block the sale if necessary.

That’s fine, but the evidence is already clear: Canada should have nothing to do with selling arms to the Philippine government under its current leadership.

Let Duterte buy his weapons from his friends in Beijing and Moscow, who care nothing for such matters as human rights. Going ahead with this sale would be beneath the dignity of Canada.

The chances that Canadian-made helicopters could be involved in operations against Philippine civilians is distinctly high