EDITORIAL Good riddance to Canadian helicopter deal

It is good that President Duterte has ordered the cancellation of a projected US$235 million purchase by the Philippines of 16 helicopters from Canada in the wake of that country's decision to review the deal owing to Manila's perceived human rights record. The Philippines cannot be a party to a hypocrisy-laced deal where it emerges as the bad guy.

At least Duterte was honest enough to admit he cannot guarantee the helicopters will not be used against rebels and terrorists. Besides, a sale where a seller imposes impossible conditions on the buyer is no fair deal at all. Canada does not exactly enjoy the high moral ground when it comes to arms sales and must be exposed. It cannot be allowed to strut its self-righteousness upon the world stage at the expense of the Philippines.

Because of this controversy, a review of Canada's own record on arms sales is in order. And that review will reveal Canada's record to be spotty. In 2014, for example, Canada sold light armored vehicles worth US$15 billion to Saudi Arabia, a country with a human rights record that is probably much worse than the Philippines. Next to the US, Canada is now the second biggest arms exporter to the Middle East, a region where human rights is a mirage,

In other words, Canada is only concerned about human rights when it wants to. At other times, it simply looks away when it is convenient to do so. Eva Salinas wrote in The Murky World of Canada's Arms manufacturing that "as Canada's long history as an arms exporter shows, many deals are not on the books and fly in the face of the country's peacekeeper reputation."

As Adnan Khan wrote in Canada's Abysmal Record as an Arms Dealer, "Dealing in weapons is a Canadian tradition stretching back to the end of the Second World War. There is a lot of Canadian-made gear floating around in volatile hotspots around the world, and there has never been a proper public debate over why this needs to be." So why all of a sudden is Ottawa reviewing the helicopter sale to Manila? Just so Justin Trudeau can win his points at Duterte's expense?

If, as Khan wrote, "Canadians were not overly surprised last week when video evidence emerged of Saudi Arabia allegedly using Canadian-made armoured vehicles against its own people," then why would Canada be concerned about something that has not yet happened? Clearly this thing reeks of hypocrisy. By the way, aside from Saudi Arabia, Canada also sells arms to dozens of other countries, among them Algeria, Colombia, Indonesia, and Egypt.