Justin Trudeau says Canada is looking to pull out of Saudi arms deal

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Justin Trudeau says Canada is looking to pull out of Saudi arms deal

• Contracted sale of armoured vehicles is worth C$14.8bn
• Pressure to cancel over Khashoggi killing and Yemen war

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Mon 17 Dec 2018 17.53 GMT

Canada is looking for a way to end a multibillon-dollar deal to sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, according to the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, but the country hasn’t yet figured out how to leave the agreement.

“We are engaged with the export permits to try and see if there is a way of no longer exporting these vehicles to Saudi Arabia,” Trudeau told CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, in the latest signal that his government is increasingly likely to terminate the contract.

Following the killing of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and mounting civilian deaths from the war in Yemen, Trudeau has been under increasing pressure from rights groups, academics and policy advisers to cancel the arms deal.

Both Germany and Sweden have cancelled arms contracts with Saudi Arabia following public outrage over the brazen killing of the dissident journalist, but Trudeau has previously said that cancelling the contract would cost the Canadian government billions.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/17/canada-saudi-arms-deal-justin-trudeau

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Related: General Dynamics warns Canada: Canceling Saudi deal would cost billions (Reuters)

[montanacowboy]

1. Good For Him

God I wish we had such a leader.

[Eugene]

2. General Dynamics warns Canada: Canceling Saudi deal would cost billions

Source: Reuters

BUSINESS NEWS DECEMBER 17, 2018 / 3:12 PM / UPDATED 24 MINUTES AGO

General Dynamics warns Canada: Canceling Saudi deal would cost billions

David Ljunggren
3 MIN READ

OTTAWA (Reuters) - General Dynamics Corp (GD.N) on Monday put pressure on Ottawa over the sale of armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia, warning that the federal government would incur “billions of dollars of liability” by unilaterally scrapping the deal.

The remarks by the Canadian unit of General Dynamics - which one defense expert called unusual - reflect increasing tensions over a $13 billion agreement that is becoming politically awkward for the Liberal government.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking in an interview aired on Sunday, said for the first time that he was looking for a way out of the deal.

Political opponents, citing the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the Yemen war, insist Trudeau should scrap a pact that was negotiated by the previous Conservative government.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-khashoggi-canada/general-dynamics-warns-canada-canceling-saudi-deal-would-cost-billions-idUSKBN1OG28B