Global Affairs Canada report on military exports deepens concerns about the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa and human rights violations
While hundreds of people protesting the companies at CANSEC that sell weapons and technology that enable genocide, war crimes and repression encountered Ottawa Police Service officers with batons and truncheons, a cursory review of the countries that Canada sells “military goods and technology” to reveals substantial reason for concern on the basis of their publicly-documented human rights records.
What countries are at CANSEC?
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), the organizer of the CANSEC arms show, highlights that “the Canadian defence and security industries are an essential service and a critical sector in Canada’s economy with $12.6 billion in “industry sales” and 52% of “total sales from exports”.
CADSI also boasts that its annual CANSEC event that takes place at the EY Centre in Ottawa attracts “50+ international delegations”.
While CADSI no longer makes public the names of the countries that send delegations to CANSEC, it posted in 2015 that there were 17 international delegations present the previous year, namely: Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, Oman, Peru, United States, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.
More recently, Israel, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Hungary and the Philippines have highlighted that they were present at CANSEC.
Global Affairs Canada report with added human rights screen
On May 31, the day after the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, Global Affairs Canada released its 2023 Exports of Military goods and technology report.
List of Human Rights Priority Countries
If one looks at the list on pages 22-24 of that report of the non-US countries that Canada exported these goods and technology to and compared it to the British government’s list of human rights priority countries, Canada exported to 6 countries on that list (Bangladesh, Colombia, Haiti, Iraq, Mali and Saudi Arabia).
Additionally, if one looks at the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom House list of “not free” countries, Canada exported military goods and technology to 13 of these countries (Algeria, Brunei, Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam).
Furthermore, if one looks at the list of countries where Front Line Defenders documented the killing of human rights defenders (HRDs), Canada exported military goods and technology to 10 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Thailand and Ukraine) where 232 HRDs were killed in 2023/24.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre
In 2023, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) “identified 630 attacks directly affecting an estimated 20,000 people. Over three quarters (78%) of these attacks were against people taking action to protect the climate, environmental and land rights.”
The BHRRC specifies: “The countries which saw the highest numbers of attacks on HRDs challenging corporate harm in 2023 were Brazil (68), India (59), Mexico (55), Honduras (44), the Philippines (36), USA (27), Iran (24), Colombia (22), Indonesia (18), Uganda (18), France (16) and the United Kingdom (15).”
The police were implicated in 233 of the attacks, while the armed forces were implicated in an additional 42 attacks.
Of the 12 countries with the highest number of attacks on HRDs, Canada exported to 9 of those countries (Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, United Kingdom and United States).
And if one looks at The State of the World’s Human Rights 2023/24 annual report produced by Amnesty International, one will find concerns about some of the countries that received some of the highest-dollar figure exports from Canada:
Saudi Arabia ($904 million): “The authorities targeted individuals for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression or association, and some were sentenced to lengthy prison terms or death following grossly unfair trials. Human rights defenders continued to be arbitrarily detained or subject to travel bans following their conditional release from prison.”
Qatar ($73 million): “The authorities continued to curtail the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including by arbitrarily detaining individuals for exercising their human rights.”
Israel ($30 million): “Israeli authorities maintained their system of apartheid, passing laws that deepened the segregation of Palestinians from Israelis, confined Palestinians to deprived locations, and implementing policies that furthered the systematic dispossession of Palestinians. Wanton destruction, home demolitions, denial of access to livelihoods, and state-backed settler violence, all intensified forced displacement.”
United Arab Emirates ($13 million): “Authorities continued to unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. …Even though 23 out of 26 prisoners of conscience detained solely for exercising their human rights had completed their prison sentences by the end of the year, the authorities kept them in prison under a law authorizing indefinite ‘counter-extremism counselling’.”
CANSEC 2025
The next CANSEC arms show is expected to take place in Ottawa on May 28-29, 2025.
Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to call for greater public disclosure of the countries that attend CANSEC and greater stringency with respect to the human rights violations committed by these countries.
We also call for Global Affairs Canada to amend its annual report on exports so that it engenders real accountability by specifying the “military goods and technology” exported (rather than simply broad categories) and to name the corporations that are selling these weapons, equipment and components.
Further reading: While France and Chile ban Israeli companies from arms shows, Canadian government supports CANSEC (June 2, 2024) and More than 800 human rights defenders killed in Palestine over the past six months (April 26, 2024).
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