Five points to consider with respect to human rights obligations and the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, May 28-29
Photo: CANSEC last year.
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) organized CANSEC arms show will take place in Ottawa this coming May 28-29.
Through the lens of PBI-Canada’s work to protect the lives of human rights defenders (HRDs) who are threatened with violence and assassination, we provide this analysis that connects CANSEC with potential risks to HRDs.
Public funding and adherence to UN Guiding Principles
1- The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada has posted that CADSI received $291,400.00 from Global Affairs Canada in 2024 and $208,600.00 from GAC in 2023. This appears to date back to at least to 2010 when they received $142,876.00 from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAITC).
Companies, including “defence and security” companies, have obligations under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Amnesty International has commented: “This means companies must assess and address human rights risks and abuses arising in all aspects of their business, including how clients such as national armies and police forces use their weaponry and related services.”
The Government of Canada says it has adopted these internationally respected guidelines and that it expects Canadian companies operating abroad to abide by them.
And yet Amnesty International has highlighted: “Major industry players including Airbus, BAE Systems and Raytheon [all of which are CADSI members] are not undertaking adequate human rights due diligence which could prevent their products from being used in potential human rights violations and war crimes.”
Transparency about countries that violate human rights
2- In September 2021, The Guardian reported: “[Along with Saudi Arabia, the] countries formally invited by the Department for International Trade (DIT) to the bi-annual DSEI (Defence and Security Equipment International) arms fair at London’s Excel that are considered to be a human rights concern were Bahrain, Bangladesh, Colombia, Egypt, and Iraq.”
The Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) has previously posted: “At CANSEC 2014, CCC led eight foreign delegations visiting from Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, Colombia, Kuwait, Mexico, Peru, and Saudi Arabia.”
And the organizers of CANSEC posted in 2015 the delegations included: “Argentina; Bahrain; Chile; Denmark; Equatorial Guinea; Israel; Italy; Kuwait; Mexico; New Zealand; Oman; Peru; United States; United Arab Emirates; United Kingdom.”
CADSI does not currently publicly disclose the list of the “50+ international delegations” that will be at CANSEC 2025. This information would be very helpful to facilitate the type of public debate The Guardian article generated.
The Canadian Commercial Corporation and accountability
3- In June 2017, the Philippines Embassy in Canada posted on Facebook: “The Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Canadian government corporation, invited and hosted the Philippine Delegation [at CANSEC].”
This invitation to the Philippines from the CCC came a year into the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte who has now been arrested on an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity dating back to November 2011.
In May 2018, National Post journalist David Pugliese further reported: “The Canadian Commercial Corporation acknowledges it conducts no follow-up to ensure exported Canadian-built equipment isn’t being used to abuse human rights.”
If the Canadian Commercial Corporation did do that follow-up, they might note that Global Witness and the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment have documented that “the Philippine military [is] the single biggest perpetrator of lethal attacks [against environmental defenders] across the country.”
Global Witness chart of land and environmental defenders killed.
The Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act
4- Both the Project Ploughshares peace research institute and the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries have stated that Canadian military exports to the United States are at least $1 billion a year.
Esprit de Corps has also reported: “The U.S. is the main market for Canadian defence exports, according to CADSI. That is valued at over $4.5 billion annually.”
Last year, Project Ploughshares highlighted: “The Government of Canada does not regulate the majority of Canada’s military transfers to the United States.”
The “Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act”, sponsored by US Representative Johnson, Henry C. “Hank,” Jr. in 2021, proposed: “To suspend United States security assistance with Honduras until such time as human rights violations by Honduran security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice.”
The legislation also states: “The Honduran military and police are widely established to be deeply corrupt and commit human rights abuses, including torture, rape, illegal detention, and murder, with impunity.”
Project Ploughshares has recommended that Canada should “begin a full reporting of the transfer of military goods, including parts and components, to the United States.”
Without this transparency, we cannot know if Canadian exports to the U.S. help construct the “security assistance” they send to Honduran security forces that the “Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act” is seeking to suspend.
International laws and the criminalization of protest
5- In January 2024, three Canadian law professors commented: “The International Court of Justice has issued a ground-breaking decision in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, ordering Israel to comply with six provisional measures to safeguard the right of Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from genocidal violence. The court’s order is binding on Israel and formalizes the international legal obligations of other countries that are parties to the UN Genocide Convention.”
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Accountability has documented this list of companies implicated in this violence and that arguably have obligations under the UN Genocide Convention and, as previously mentioned, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Five CANSEC 2025 sponsors – Google, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Cisco and Leonardo – are on the AFSC list.
It is unclear if the Ottawa Police Service (OPS) and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have sought a legal opinion following the ICJ ruling with respect to their obligations given the States and companies present at CANSEC.
What is clear, however, is that the OPS and the OPP appear to have focused considerable resources on facilitating the entrance of the representatives of arms companies and international delegations (whatever their human rights records might be) to the CANSEC arms show while criminalizing those who assemble on public spaces outside the EY Centre to protest genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
We continue to follow this.
We further note the Shut Down CANSEC Instagram page.
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