Military

Exports

(click below

for data tables)

For decades, Canadian governments -- Conservative and Liberal alike -- have

preached peace and human rights, while facilitating the steady flow of weapons,

ammunition, tear gas, armoured vehicles and many other military and so-called

"security" products to repressive, undemocratic regimes in the Middle East and

North Africa. These governments are responsible for widespread, violent and

systematic abuses of human rights, such as torture and murder. By exporting

military and police products to these countries, Canada is complicit in aiding and

abetting numerous U.S.-backed regimes that maintain power through brute force.



Inspired by popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, and growing protests

throughout the region, the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) has

compiled the available information on military exports from Canadian government

reports and has produced data tables for each recipient country in the Middle

East and North Africa. (Click the flags or links, at left, to see data tables

compiling information on Canada's military exports to these governments.)



COAT's country tables show the value of "Munitions" exports in 22 categories

from "Group 2" of Canada's "Export Control List," as published in annual reports

by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) called

"Export of Military Goods from Canada." (Click here for all the Sources used

to produce the accompanying COAT data tables on military exports.)



According to official reports published annually by DFAIT -- which unfortunately

only document some of Canada's military exports -- the Canadian government

permitted military sales valued at over $1.99 Billion to 16 countries in the

Middle East and North Africa between 1990 and 2009.



Unfortunately, DFAIT's reports do not document the export of any "dual use"

military products, even when they have been sold directly to the armed forces

of foreign governments. Neither do these DFAIT reports include any military

exports to the U.S., even though Canadian military products are assembled there

into complete weapons systems and then re-exported by the U.S. to other

countries. Because of the inadequacies in DFAIT's transparency on Canada's

arms exports, the data assembled and displayed in these COAT tables is --

regrettably -- incomplete. However, this is the best publicly-available information

on Canada's military exports to the Middle East and North Africa.



Human Rights: The links, at right, contain ample evidence on human rights,

labour rights, human trafficking and the exploitation of children within countries

receiving Canadian military exports. These links corroborate the assertion that

Canada should stop exporting tools of war and repression, especially to states

where military and police have impunity, and human rights abuses are endemic.