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Chrystia Freeland, the global affairs minister, is said to be keen to follow through on comments she made publicly at the end of last month, when she linked arms sales to Saudi Arabia to the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

No new arms export permits will be issued to the desert kingdom, she said. “I also want to be clear that in the past, we have suspended already issued export permits and, as the prime minister has said, that is action that we have taken in the past and we stand prepared to take in the future.”

One government official said a number of options are on the table, and it is not simply a binary choice between keeping the contract and cancelling it.

“We are serious when we say we are reviewing export sales to Saudi Arabia — therefore, we are doing the prudent thing by examining all scenarios. But no final decisions have been taken while the review proceeds,” he said.

General Dynamics declined to comment.

The problems a cancellation would create for the government are obvious.

Trudeau has already talked about the potential of incurring “significant financial penalties” of over $1 billion.

Then there is the prospect of thousands of people in the London area losing their jobs. General Dynamics would not say how much of their business is dependent on the Saudi LAV deal but it is sizeable.

CBC reported in September that the number of vehicles ordered has already been reduced to 742 from the original 928. It is not known how many have already been delivered.