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OTTAWA — Saudi Arabia still has a troubling human rights record but Canada’s foreign affairs minister says an amended contract to sell it light-armoured vehicles is better than the version the previous Conservative government negotiated.

Francois-Philippe Champagne offered that explanation Thursday as he defended the government’s decision to announce — just hours before the start of a holiday long weekend — that it had improved the much-maligned $14-billion contract to sell light-armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

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Champagne said the government was able to make significant improvements to the contract, including making its terms more transparent and eliminating Canada’s exposure to risk when it runs into issues with future export permits.

Champagne said two new amendments to the deal, negotiated by Finance Minister Bill Morneau in recent months, were signed on March 31 and the government just wanted to tell Canadians about it as soon as it could. He said 50 per cent of the vehicles had been delivered and that Morneau managed to make improvements to the Saudi “payment schedule.”