Photo: The RCMP arrested a member of the We, the Secwépemc Unity Camp at a Trans Mountain pipeline construction site in Kamloops on October 15, 2020.

Two years ago, the Environmental Defence report PAYING POLLUTERS highlighted: “A particularly egregious form of fossil fuel subsidy are investments made into policing Indigenous land defenders opposing fossil fuel infrastructure.”

Earlier this year, the CBC reported that the RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) had spent $3.5 million on policing related to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project between April 1, 2017, and July 31, 2022.

Now, the National Observer reports: “The federal government is once again putting taxpayer dollars on the line to prop up the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX).”

That article adds: “This week it came to light that the federal government approved two loan guarantees (one on March 24 and one on May 2) backing the additional $3 billion Canada’s biggest big banks recently loaned the Crown corporation.”

Politico further explains: “The loan guarantees are administered under the Canada Account at Export Development Canada, a federal Crown corporation. …Loan guarantees are considered subsidies by the World Trade Organization.”

After the price tag to construct the pipeline had surged from the original estimate of $7.4 billion to $21.4 billion, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland promised in February 2022 that “there will be no additional public money invested in TMC.”

Since then, at least $20,337.00 has been spent on RCMP C-IRG policing in relation to the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

While a proportionally a small amount of funds, millions more have been budgeted to the RCMP C-IRG by the British Columbia government in anticipation of continued resistance against extractivist projects in the province.

In March of this year, MLA Adam Olsen questioned the provincial Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth about a $36 million allocation to the RCMP C-IRG. Farnworth replied: “It is based on an average that we have spent in this province over the last number of years in terms of dealing with the enforcement of court ordered injunctions.”

Farnworth added in his response: “We have to pay for the costs of the policing that takes place in the course of the enforcement of these injunctions. We budget for it based on the amount of money that has been spent on an annual basis over the last number of years. That is our best estimate. In some cases, it may cost more. In some cases, it may cost less. If it costs less, that money can go somewhere else.”

The chart below by the CBC shows that over the past three years (2020 to July 2022), the RCMP C-IRG spent $35.36 million on enforcement actions for the Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink pipelines and against logging protests at Fairy Creek.

(While more than half the province’s estimate was likely based on the $18.7 million spent at Fairy Creek, just this week the province announced that it would defer logging of old-growth forests in this area for two more years, until February 1, 2025.)

Provinces and territories pay 70 per cent of the cost of the RCMP’s operations in their jurisdictions, while the Canadian government pays the remaining 30 per cent.

It needs to be clarified if the Canadian government has also budgeted in some way 30 percent (about $15 million) beyond the $36 million allocated by the provincial government for the RCMP C-IRG. If so, that may represent an additional budgeted subsidy for the construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

We have written Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino about this. We will post an update when we receive a response.

We continue to follow this with concern.

On June 5, Secwepemc land defender Kanahus Manuel was acquitted of “breach of condition” charges related to her opposition to the Trans Mountain expansion (TMX) pipeline project being built on her territory in northern British Columbia.

In this video, Manuel notes that she has been criminalized for upholding Secwepemc law and asserting the right to free, prior and informed consent.

Trans Mountain security officer Marty Cheliak, a former RCMP officer, had testified in court that Manuel breached her bail conditions during the period of August 31, 2021, and September 3, 2021, when she allegedly confronted pipeline workers on her territory.

At the time of this alleged offence, she was on bail charged with stealing a lock from a pumping station on her territory in September 2019.

In May 2021, Manuel was found guilty on one charge of theft. Then in October of that year, she given a conditional discharge and placed on a 12-month probation order. She has commented: “I was found guilty of ‘theft’ for a supposed padlock from the gate of the Trans Mountain pump station, with no physical evidence, witness or video footage.”

UN Committee calls on Canada to withdraw RCMP

Three years ago, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on Canada “to immediately cease construction of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project and cancel all permits, until free, prior and informed consent is obtained from all the Secwepemc people, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.” The Committee also called on Canada to withdraw the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) from the traditional lands of the Secwepemc.

UN Special Rapporteur to comment in September

In March of this year, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples José Francisco Calí Tzay visited Canada. In his preliminary findings, he noted:

“During my visit, I was informed that a large number of megaprojects in Indigenous territories proceed without good faith consultation and in the absence of obtaining Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent as, in the case of Trans Mountain Pipeline. I am also concerned about the ongoing militarization of Indigenous lands and the criminalization of Indigenous human rights defenders resisting the Trans Mountain and Coastal GasLink pipelines in British Columbia. I urge the Government of Canada to end these violations and to adopt adequate measures to guarantee Indigenous Peoples’ right to consultation and free, prior and informed consent, and their rights to lands, territories and resources.”

He will present his final report to the UN Human Rights Council in September.

Criminalization in a global context

In April of this year, Front Line Defenders released its Global Analysis 2022 report. That report noted: “In 2022, criminalisation in all its forms was one of the most pervasive and complex threats facing HRDs [human rights defenders] and their organisations globally. According to Front Line Defenders data, criminalisation of HRDs, in the form of arrest, detention and legal action, was the most prominent form of attack – comprising 34% of all violations recorded against HRDs during the year.”

The need for accompaniment

In September 2021, Manuel stated: “I really like what Amnesty International and some of those international organizations do by providing security for Native land defenders in South America. They don’t have that here, but we need to be able to provide it for our own land defenders to be able to have security for women and people, Elders who do want to go out and defend land, but they don’t have the security needed to do it because violence comes to us. We’re not asking for it, but it’s coming from the police, it’s coming from the Crown, it’s coming from the corporation, their workers, it’s also coming from just regular civilians that are just white supremacists who want to come with their hate.”

The pipeline

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) is an 890,000 barrel per day, 1,147-kilometre pipeline that would cross Indigenous territories from Alberta to the British Columbia coast. Almost half the length of the pipeline – 518 kilometres of it – would cross Secwepemc territory in British Columbia without free, prior and informed consent.

The Canadian government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bought the existing 300,000 barrel per day Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion in May 2018. It is estimated that the pipeline expansion will cost $30.9 billion.

It is now expected to be operational in early 2024.

To follow Kanahus Manuel on Twitter, click here.

Photo: The UAE Ministry of Defence delegation at CANSEC in 2019.

On May 31, the same day that 100+ activists worked to blockade the annual CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, Global Affairs Canada released its report on the export of Canadian “military goods” for 2022. That report showed that Canada had exported $25.6 million in military goods to the United Arab Emirates last year.

Video: Democracy Now! coverage of protest against CANSEC.

Over the last five years, Canada’s military exports to the United Arab Emirates have totaled more than $115.47 million. Previous Global Affairs Canada reports show $3,070,851.22 (2021), $24,818,351.43 (2020), $36,641,736.02 (2019) and $25,337,956.77 (2018).

This follows the February 2018 article by David Pugliese in the Ottawa Citizen that reported: “Canadian defence industry representatives have praised the Canadian Commercial Corporation for its efforts in selling military equipment around the world and have pointed out it was now focused on boosting arms sales to the United Arab Emirates.”

The Canadian Commercial Corporation is a Crown corporation (government-owned enterprise) “that offers international contracting expertise to forge commercial contracts between Canadian businesses and foreign governments”.

It is accountable to the Parliament of Canada through Mary Ng, the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development.

Photo: Ng at the Canada-UAE Business Council in March 2022 in Dubai.

These exports of “military goods” continue to happen despite Amnesty International documenting that in 2022: “The United Arab Emirates (UAE) put into effect new laws that significantly curtail freedom of expression and assembly. The authorities extended the arbitrary detention of tens of mass trial victims past the end of their prison terms, and subjected one human rights defender and one dissident to extended ill-treatment. The government renewed its stance against recognizing the rights of refugees.”

Human Rights Watch has also highlighted that in 2021: “The UAE continued to develop its surveillance capabilities, both online and through mass facial recognition surveillance in public spaces. New reports emerged of UAE authorities misusing Israeli spyware to gain access to the private and encrypted communications of journalists, activists, and world leaders.”

And the Washington, DC-based Freedom House, a US government-funded human rights group, describes the UAE as “not free”.

Military sector and climate change

Dr. Angelika Claußen, Co-Chair of the German section of IPPNW (International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War/Physicians in Social Responsibility, has written: “Globally, the military sector is estimated to generate around six per cent of all CO2 emissions.”

She adds: “According to a study by Neta Crawford, co-director of the Costs of War project at Brown University, the US defence ministry alone is a bigger contributor to the climate crisis than individual countries such as Sweden or Portugal. This makes it the largest institutional source of greenhouse gases in the world.”

Every year Canada exports about $1 billion in military goods to the US.

UAE to host COP28, November 30 to December 12

The Guardian has reported: “[The COP28 climate change conference] will take place in Dubai, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a leading oil and gas producer. And the official chosen to preside over the summit – Sultan Al Jaber – is the chief executive of the country’s national oil company, Adnoc, which is planning a big expansion of production capacity.”

A joint statement signed by many human rights organizations has noted: “Civil society groups fear that the severe restrictions imposed by the UAE authorities in recent years will hinder the full and meaningful participation of journalists, activists, human rights defenders, civil society, youth groups, and indigenous peoples’ representatives at COP28.”

That letter calls for an “end restrictions on civic space and uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly to enable meaningful participation of civil society and indigenous peoples at COP28.”

This past November, Canadian author Naomi Klein tweeted: “Now is the time to decide not to do this all over again next year, when the summit will be in the UAE. Of all places. Civil society should announce a boycott + instead hold a true people’s summit. One gathering per continent to limit flying. Links to the official summit by video.”

We continue to follow this with concern.

Further reading: No Critical Press: The Breach barred from weapons show for ‘critical anti-war journalism’ (The Breach, May 31, 2023).

Photo: Ottawa Police shove an activist protesting the CANSEC arms show. The UK Supreme Court has ruled there should be a certain degree of tolerance to the disruption of traffic in a case related to a blockade of the DSEI arms show in London.

On May 31, as more than 100 people protested outside the annual CANSEC weapons show in Ottawa, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) reported: “For the 2022 calendar year, the value of Canadian exports of controlled military goods and technology to non-U.S. destinations amounted to approximately $2.122 billion.”

The total amount to U.S. destinations is believed to be at least $1 billion, which if counted could push the actual total to about $3.1 billion in 2022.

The GAC report does note: “Saudi Arabia was the largest non-U.S. export destination, receiving approximately $1.151 billion in Canadian military exports (accounting for approximately 54% of the total value of non-U.S. military exports).”

A review of Canada’s reports on its export of military goods over the past five years shows: 2022 ($2.122 billion), 2021 ($2.731 billion), 2020 ($1.966 billion), 2019 ($3.757 billion), 2018 ($2.069 billion) for a total of $12.645 billion to non-US countries.

Again, if the $1 billion in exports to the U.S. were added for each of those years, the overall five-year total would be closer to $17.64 billion.

Canadian military goods sold to repressive regimes

In June 2021, The Guardian reported: “Two-thirds of countries classified as ‘not free’ because of their dire record on human rights and civil liberties have received weapons licensed by the UK government over the past decade, new analysis reveals. Between 2011-2020, the UK licensed £16.8bn of arms to countries criticised by [the Washington, DC-based] Freedom House, a US government-funded human rights group.”

If we look at the list of countries that Freedom House considers either “not free” or only “partly free”, Canada’s military exports for 2022 totals $1.26 billion to 16 “not free” countries and $146 million to 18 “partly free countries” (for an overall total of $1.41 billion).

Additionally, that same article in The Guardian also reported: “Analysis by the London-based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) found that £11.8bn of arms had been authorised by the UK government during the same period [2011-2020] to the Foreign Office’s own list of ‘human rights priority countries’.”

If we look at the November 2021 list of the countries where the United Kingdom is “particularly concerned about human rights issues” and compare that to Canada’s military exports in 2022 alone, we find that Canada exported in $1.17 billion arms to 6 of those countries.

An analysis that includes the United States and other countries as being involved in wars that have been deemed illegal (such as the invasion of Iraq in 2003-2011 and Afghanistan in 2001-2021) would also see longer-term totals dramatically increase.

Activists threatened with arrest

At the protest against CANSEC this past week, the Ottawa Police Service repeatedly threatened activists with arrest for disrupting traffic.

They also told activists that they did not have the right to a rotating picket against the arms show, asserting that is a Charter right only given to labour unions.

And they threatened to seize as evidence banners that had been placed on the fence that was put up around the EY Centre where the weapons show took place.

Notably, in June 2021, The Guardian reported: “Four demonstrators who formed a blockade outside a London arms fair have had their convictions quashed by the supreme court, in what has been hailed as an affirmation of the right to protest.”

Justices Lord Hamblen and Lord Stephens stated: “There should be a certain degree of tolerance to disruption to ordinary life, including disruption of traffic, caused by the exercise of the right to freedom of expression or freedom of peaceful assembly.”

The ruling added: “The appellants were not a group of people who randomly chose to attend this event hoping to cause trouble. We consider that the peaceful intentions of the appellants were appropriate matters to be considered in an evaluation of proportionality.”

That ruling by the UK Supreme Court can be read in full here.

In June 2021, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) also upheld the right to blockade. Their report cautioned: “The Commission considers that the absolute prohibition of any blockade … could constitute a restriction disproportionate to freedom of expression, demonstration and assembly.”

CANSEC in 2024

Plans are already underway to protest the CANSEC weapons show in Ottawa in May-June 2024. Stay tuned for more in the coming months.

PBI-Canada was present at the protest outside the CANSEC weapons show this year and continues to call on Canada to stop arming repression.

For a deeper analysis of the 2022 report on Canada’s export of military goods, please listen to this 30-minute interview with Kelsey Gallagher from Project Ploughshares.

For coverage of the protest on Democracy Now!, click here.

A “Lockheed Martin, Stop Selling War Machines” banner helps block arms dealers, government officials and the military from CANSEC. Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

As more than 100 activists blocked the entrances to the parking lots of the CANSEC weapons show in Ottawa yesterday, traffic was snarled for a distance on Uplands Avenue and the Airport Parkway delaying many attendees getting inside the EY Centre.

Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

Canada’s Defence Minister Anita Anand, who was scheduled to speak at 7:50 am, tweeted at 9:51 am that she had “just delivered [her] remarks”. There was also a tweet at 9:17 am that suggests she was just then “officially open[ing] the event”.

After Anand’s speech, U.S. Ambassador David L. Cohen visited the booth of Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons company.

Twitter photo of Ambassador Cohen (right) at the Lockheed Martin booth.

In the article 20 companies profiting the most from war, USA Today ranked the Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin at the top of their list with $2 billion in profit from $44.9 billion in arms sales in 2017.

Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

And in an “earnings call” in January 2022, just prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet said expectantly that the “renewed great power competition” would lead to inflated defense budgets and additional sales.

The company’s stock soared nearly 25 per cent in the first quarter of that year. By the end of 2022, Lockheed Martin had recorded $5.7 billion in profit.

This creates the concern that there is an economic incentive for Lockheed Martin for the war to continue despite the deaths of more than 240,000 people in Ukraine and Russia.

“An apparent war crime”

Human Rights Watch has also described the Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrike that killed 40 children and wounded another 56 children in Yemen in August 2018 as “an apparent war crime”. CNN has established that it was a Lockheed Martin-made 500-pound laser-guided MK 82 bomb that killed the children.

Photo by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

Defund warplanes

Minister Anand also announced in February 2022 that Canada had signed a contract to pay $19 billion to Lockheed Martin for 88 F-35 stealth fighter jets.

The actual overall cost to Canadians of this purchase has been estimated to be $76.8 billion (diverting crucial funds from needed social programs).

And while the Government of Canada announced in April 2022 that it would increase its military budget by $8 billion, Ambassador Cohen commented the following month: “It’s fair to say that though $8 billion is more money, it was a little disappointing as matched against the rhetoric that we heard leading into the release of the budget.”

Photo from CADSI Twitter of Ambassador Cohen (right) and Minister Anand.

The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), the organizers of the CANSEC weapons show, have additionally argued against export permits for the sale of Canadian “military goods” to the United States, stating that “would put at risk at least $1 billion per year in Canadian defence industry business.”

Given the lack of transparency in these sales and the likelihood of Canadian-made weapons and components then being exported by the U.S. as “security assistance” to countries implicated in serious human rights violations, there is cause for further concern.

For instance, despite well-documented human rights violations, the U.S. provides $40 million in “security assistance” annually to Peru.

While Canada has sold more than $2.4 million in military goods to Peru over the past five years, we don’t know how much more may have been sent via the “security assistance” provided through the United States.

Photo by World Beyond War.

Peace Brigades International has previously stated that “the dominant security discourse associated with the militarization of societies is a setback. Billions more spent on weapons will not make the world safer.”

Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh killed by Israel Defence Forces to be remembered at Stop CANSEC protest in Ottawa (May 28, 2023)

For more, please also see this World Beyond War report and The Breach barred from weapons show for ‘critical anti-war journalism’.

To help amplify on social media, click here.

The sale of Canadian-made weapons, military vehicles and components can be linked to human rights violations from Wet’suwet’en territory to Colombia.

“Military goods” are used in wars, but also by security forces in the repression of human rights defenders, civil society protests and Indigenous rights.

The CANSEC arms show in Ottawa is organized by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), the “industry voice” for more than 650 companies that generate $12.6 billion in annual revenues, roughly half of which come from exports.

CANSEC promotes itself as “a one-stop shop for first responders, police, border and security entities and special operations units.”

This year’s CANSEC arms show is expected to attract 280+ exhibitors, 50+ international delegations, and “600+ VIPS, generals, top military & government officials”. CADSI says: “74% of attendees have purchasing power”.

We look at some of the reasons why organizations, defenders and communities are concerned about CANSEC:

THE UNITED STATES

Canada exports at least $1 billion a year in “military goods” to the United States. Is some of that then exported again as U.S. “security assistance” to Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala? What are the human rights implications of this?

Read more. Amplify on social media.

COLOMBIA

As Toronto-based INKAS Armored Vehicles returns to the #CANSEC2023 arms show in Ottawa this coming May 31, questions remain about the use of an INKAS Huron by Colombian police two years ago during the national strike.

Read more. Amplify on social media.

MEXICO

Despite Amnesty International documenting human rights violations by the Mexican military, a video promoting the upcoming #CANSEC2023 arms show in Ottawa includes this image.

Read more. Amplify on social media.

PERU

As Amnesty International denounces the lethal use of force by Peruvian security forces, a CADSI video for the #CANSEC2023 arms show in Ottawa includes the Peruvian military. Defence Minister Anita Anand will open CANSEC on Wednesday May 31.

Read more. Amplify on social media.

ECUADOR

As Ecuadorean president Lasso rules by decree, soldiers surround the National Assembly, and communities in the Amazon report an increased military presence at oil wells, a #CANSEC2023 video highlights the Ecuadorean military at this arms show.

Read more. Amplify on social media.

WET’SUWET’EN

Airbus, Teledyne FLIR, Colt and General Dynamics will be at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa. These companies have equipped the RCMP “Community-Industry Response Group” (C-IRG) with helicopters, drones, rifles and bullets.

Read more. Amplify on social media.

PALESTINE

As Elbit, Thales and Israel participate inside the #CANSEC2023 arms show in Ottawa this coming Wednesday May 31, we will remember (at a protest that starts at 7 am that day) the IDF killing of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

Read more. Amplify on social media.

INDONESIA

Despite security forces killing with impunity in Papua and West Papua, Canada has exported $30 million in “military goods” to Indonesia over the past five years. At least three companies that sell weapons to Indonesia will be at #CANSEC2023.

Read more.

THE PHILIPPINES

A delegation from the Philippines was welcomed at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa (where they posed with a helicopter) just months after Philippine president Duterte threatened to throw people out of a helicopter claiming he had done it before.

Read more. Amplify on social media.

For more on the popular mobilization against #CANSEC2023, please click here.

This year’s CANSEC arms show is expected to attract 280+ exhibitors, 50+ international delegations, and “600+ VIPS, generals, top military & government officials”. “74% of attendees have purchasing power”. Photo from CANSEC 2022 by Koozma J. Tarasoff.

Over the last five years, Canada has exported more than $30 million in “military goods” to Indonesia (2017- $3,089,576.20; 2018-$5,788,853.43; 2019-$2,738,360.44; 2020-$8,176,217.40; 2021-$10,708,499.85).

This continues despite concerning reports from Amnesty International.

Amnesty has documented: “Authorities repeatedly used excessive force to break up protests, including by local communities protesting against mining operations [in 2022]. The crackdown on political dissent in Papua and West Papua provinces continued.”

It also notes: “Security forces committed unlawful killings, including in Papua and West Papua, largely with impunity.”

This situation has been ongoing.

In 2017, Human Rights Watch reported: “Impunity for the security forces in the provinces of Papua and West Papua also remains a serious problem and dozens of Papuans remain imprisoned for nonviolent expression of their political views.”

In November 2022, through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process at the United Nations, Canada recommended that Indonesia: “Investigate allegations of human rights violations in Indonesian Papua, and prioritize the protection of civilians, including women and children.”

Canadian arms sales to Indonesia

Maclean’s magazine has reported: “The example of arms sales to Indonesia curiously shows both a greater Canadian willingness to sell and the limits to that willingness.”

“Indonesia notoriously invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor in 1975, with more than 100,000 Timorese perishing under the subsequent military occupation. From 1975 to 1991, Canada nonetheless was willing to sell arms to Indonesia.”

That article adds: “In 1991, a massacre in East Timor prompted Barbara McDougall, foreign minister in Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government, to impose an arms embargo. …Arms sales to Indonesia resumed as Jean Chrétien’s government embraced Indonesia, but there was increasing dissent within the Department of Foreign Affairs about it. …In September 1999, after extensive public pressure, foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy imposed an arms embargo as pro-Indonesia militia groups killed, forcibly relocated and terrorized the Timorese population.”

It’s not clear when that embargo implemented in 1999 was subsequently lifted, but Canada has exported $31,021,357.46 (adding in $519,850.14 in 2016) in military goods, since Justin Trudeau became prime minister in November 2015.

Trade talks in Ottawa, May 29

Global Affairs Canada has noted: “On June 20, 2021, Canada and Indonesia launched negotiations towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). …Four rounds of negotiations have taken place…  A fifth round of negotiations is scheduled to take place between May 29-June 2, 2023 in Ottawa.”

In March 2022, after the first round of talks were completed, the Ottawa-based Canadian Centre for Police Alternatives (CCPA) posted: “According to the CEPA negotiating objectives tabled in Parliament last year, Canada hopes furthermore to include a controversial investment protection chapter in the CEPA. This chapter would grant Canadian oil, gas and mining firms, which hold over 90% of the value of all Canadian investment in Indonesia, extraordinary rights to sue the Indonesian government over measures to ensure human rights are respected and the environment protected.”

The CCPA adds: “In early 2021, for example, the Indonesian government granted a large gold and silver mining concession covering half the island of Sangihe to Canadian-owned Baru Gold Corporation. This project has been criticized by environmentalists for threatening pristine rainforests, at least 10 species of bird and the island’s freshwater supply. A CEPA with Indonesia that includes an investor-state dispute settlement would tilt the scales in this and other mining struggles in the interest of profit-driven mining firms over community and environmental interests.”

In November 2022, a CBC article highlighted that the Trudeau government’s “Indo-Pacific strategy will include new investments to strengthen the role the Canadian Armed Forces plays in the region…” That article adds: “While Trudeau previously spoke about expanding natural gas exports to Japan and Korea, his office said he also wants to exchange natural resources with India, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Taiwan.”

Thales, BAE, Rheinmetall at CANSEC

In December 2022, the Australian alternative journal Green Left reported: “Community members gathered on December 1 to raise the West Papuan flag in the lobby of weapon’s company Thales’ office. The action was held to protest Thales’ weapons’ exports to Indonesia and call on it to recall its weapons from West Papua.”

That article adds: “Thales is one of many companies that manufacture weapons in Australia for sale to the Indonesian forces. Others include BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Electro Optic Systems and Rheinmetall Defence.”

Thales Canada Inc. (booth 1701), BAE Systems (713) and Rheinmetall Canada Inc. (1121/3021) will be at CANSEC 2023 in Ottawa.

Protest at CANSEC, May 31

For more on the protest planned against the CANSEC arms show, weapons exports and their link to human rights violations, click here.

Photo: Members of the Guatemalan Inter-Agency Border Unit. Photo from Military Times.

Kelsey Gallagher from Project Ploughshares has reported: “On May 31, 2022, the Canadian government tabled the 2021 Exports of Military Goods report, providing details on reported Canadian arms exports and brokering of military goods for that year. The total value of these exports was the second highest in history: $2.73-billion.”

Gallagher then highlights: “Most exports bound for the United States were not included, even though the U.S. is a major importer of Canadian weapons.”

He further notes: “Typically, more than half of all Canada’s weapons exports each year go to the United States.”

In 2016, CBC reported: “Global Affairs show that Canada had a banner year in 2012, exporting more than $1 billion in ‘military goods and technology.’ That number dropped to about $680 million in 2013. …Ploughshares estimates that the Canadian industry likely exports arms worth between $2 billion and $3 billion per year when the U.S. is included.”

The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) has also suggested that Canadian military exports to the U.S. total about $1 billion a year.

What is being exported?

Gallagher has also previously noted: “[Arms sales to our southern neighbour] include both the primary armaments used in conflict, such as firearms, munitions, and combat vehicles; and the critical supports, services, parts, and components that keep the U.S. military operational.”

What exports are now counted?

Ploughshares has also noted that the Report on the Export of Military Goods produced by the Canadian government only reports the financial value of ECL [Export Control List] Groups 2-1 through 2-4 to the United States. This includes “automatic weapons with a calibre of 12.7 mm or less”, “weapons or armament with a calibre greater than 12.7 mm”, “ammunition” and “bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges”.

In 2021, the total value of all reported exports to the United States was $133.8-million, just over 10 per cent of the estimated amount of Canada’s total military exports to the U.S.

Ploughshares recommends that Canada should “begin a full reporting of the transfer of military goods, including parts and components, to the United States.”

Exported again?

The CBC also explains: “Kenneth Epps, a policy adviser at Ploughshares Project [says] most of what Canada produces [is] component parts of larger weapons systems, both hardware and software. …When the government grants an export permit for military equipment it can be incorporated into a larger weapons system and exported again.”

Notably, Canadian military exports to the U.S. do not even require a permit. Christyn Cianfarani, the president of CADSI (the association that organizes CANSEC) has stated: “Requiring export permits for Canadian defence goods purchased by the U.S. government would put at risk at least $1 billion per year in Canadian defence industry business.”

Military equipment to Guatemala

In October 2022, Rights Action posted: “Amidst an intensifying crackdown on human rights defenders, journalists, and judicial sector workers in Guatemala, the US handed over $4.4 million worth of military equipment to the Guatemalan Army.”

It adds: “On October 13, at the Mariscal Zavala base, the US Ambassador William Popp oversaw the donation of 95 tactical vehicles to the Guatemalan Army.”

Rights Action has also reported: “[In October 2021] US-donated jeeps were used to intimidate Indigenous human rights defenders from El Estor. President Giammattei had declared martial law following a protest against an illegal mine that continues to harm the environment and local communities.”

U.S. “security assistance”

Then in November 2022, Sandra Cuffe reported in Aljazeera: “Between the US Departments of Defense and State, the US provided more than $66m in security assistance to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras from 2017 through 2021.”

In addition, U.S. aid to the military/police in Colombia was $235 million in 2022 (and $2.375 billion over the previous 10 years) and about $3 billion to security forces in Mexico from 2007 to 2020 (as noted in this March 2021 U.S. Government Accountability Office report).

In June 2021, The Intercept reported: “The current iteration of disappearances in Mexico is linked to former President Felipe Calderón’s 2006 deployment of thousands of troops into the streets in a supposed war on drug trafficking organizations. The following year, the Bush administration threw its support behind the campaign through the Mérida Initiative, a security program that to date has provided more than $3.3 billion in assistance to Mexico.”

Ability to address “misuse”?

CADSI president Cianfarani has asserted: “We must remember that [Canadian exported military] goods cannot leave the United States without passing through the American export regime — International Traffic in Arms — which, like ours, is one of the world’s toughest.”

But Cuffe notes: “The United States lacks concrete policies to properly document and address alleged misuse of its military equipment donations in Central America, a new government report has found, fuelling concerns that potential abuses will continue to go unchecked.”

We remain concerned about the implications of this ongoing situation.

Further reading: Members of Congress Call to Halt U.S. Military and Police Aid to Central America (CISPES, May 2022) and What support does Canada provide to the Honduran military and police? (PBI-Canada, October 2021).

Protest CANSEC, May 31

For information on the popular mobilization against CANSEC that will note concerns about Canadian arms exports to the U.S., please click here.

Photo: Colombian police use what appears to be a Toronto-based INKAS-manufactured armoured vehicle to stop buses of delegates travelling to Cali for a popular assembly related to the national strike on July 17, 2021.

INKAS Armored Vehicle Manufacturing will be at Booth 3108 at the CANSEC arms show being held at the EY Centre in Ottawa this coming May 31-June 1.

The Toronto-based company sold four Huron tactical attack and defense vehicles to the Colombian police in 2014.

The Export Controls Division at Global Affairs Canada has confirmed: “In 2014, 1 permit was issued to INKAS to export (4) armored transportation vehicles (controlled under ECL 2-6 and valued at — [note: the dollar amount was redacted] to the Colombian National Police for patrolling and intervention in intense guerilla areas.”

In April 2015, PLANT also reported: “The manufacturer is still building behemoth armoured personnel carriers (APCs). In fact, there’s a tendered order for 26 of its Huron vehicles, at about $450,000 a pop, for the National Police of Columbia.”

That article adds: “The Huron will be outfitted with a cannon to wrangle unruly rioters with foam, tear gas, dyes and water.”

It’s unclear if that sale (that would have been in the range of $13 million) happened.

According to the Export Controls Division: “The vast majority of the more than $47 million in Canadian military exports to Colombia between 2012 and 2020 took place in 2014 when — exported 46 [General Dynamics Land Systems/GDLS] LAVs [Light Armoured Vehicles] to the Colombian Army through the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) in [a] government to government contract.”

While the dollar figure from the Export Controls Division does not align, GDLS-Canada announced: in 2013 that: “The Colombian Ministry of National Defence has awarded a USD $65.3 million contract to General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada for 24 Light Armoured Vehicles for the Colombian Army.”

The Government of Canada report on the export of military goods also shows there was a significant export of category 2-6 (ground vehicles and components) to Colombia in 2020. We could surmise that these are components for the General Dynamics LAVs and/or for the INKAS Huron armoured vehicles.

INKAS armoured vehicle and the national strike

It appears that one of the INKAS armoured vehicles sold to Colombia was used by the police to impede activists travelling to Cali during the national strike.

On July 17, 2021, Alejandra Wilches tweeted: “The police detained different delegations heading to the National People’s Assembly in Cali!”

Digital media Kienyke also reported: “Caravans of cars and buses with dozens of people were stopped on different roads in the country because the National Police prevented entry to the department of Valle del Cauca.”

This tweet (with the armoured vehicle visible) further noted: “Several delegations from each city (Popayan, Bucaramanga, Bogota …) going to the Asemblea Nacional del Paro are detained by the police who prevent them from going there to Cali.”

And this 2-minute video (in Spanish) with the armoured vehicle visible in the background also helps to understand what happened.

This incident was noted by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association and Peaceful Assembly.

Clement Voule tweeted: “I am concerned about the application of the decree adopted by the Govt of Valle del Cauca which, despite its exceptions, is currently limiting the arrival of human rights defenders in Cali, restricting their right to peaceful assembly in Cali.”

Questions remain

Almost two years after the incident, questions still remain.

In response to our Access to Information (ATIP) request on the sale of these armoured vehicles to the Colombian national police, we received a 3-page document with two emails (dated October 14, 2021 and June 11, 2021) from an official with Export Controls Division sent to various other Global Affairs Canada officials.

The October 14, 2021 email states: “Officials from BGOTA [the Embassy of Canada in Colombia] asked the Colombian National Police (CNP) whether these armoured vehicles were being used in response to the social protests that began in late April. [Police] officials responded that no Canadian armoured vehicle was being used for such a purpose.”

That seems contradictory to the social media reports noted above.

Then following a redacted paragraph, the email says: “The vehicles are not being used by ESMAD (Escuadron Movil Antidisturbios or Mobile Anti-Disturbance Squadron) —”

This leaves questions about what information was redacted and the PLANT article that reported: “The [INKAS] Huron will be outfitted with a cannon to wrangle unruly rioters with foam, tear gas, dyes and water.”

Protest CANSEC, May 31

INKAS has previously exhibited at CANSEC (in 2017 and 2018) and will be there again this year.

For information on the popular mobilization being planned that will highlight the relationship between arms sales and human rights violations, please click here.