‘Canada arms exports to Bahrain soars’

A report shows Canadian arms exports have soared to countries with poor human rights records, including Bahrain, raising questions about the Canadian government’s foreign policy commitment.

The analysis by the Canadian Press and published on Sunday showed that sales to Bahrain increased from zero in 2011 to a quarter of a million Canadian dollars in 2012, while sales to Algeria shot from 29 Canadian dollars to 242,000 during the same time period.

The Bahraini regime has cracked down on protests since early 2011. Scores of people have been killed in the heavy-handed clampdown.

In addition, the report found that during the same period, Canada increased its weapons exports to Pakistan by 98 percent, Mexico by 93 percent and Egypt by 83 percent, of which all countries are experiencing conflicts.

The increasing sales to these countries have raised questions by analysts about the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s foreign policy commitment to human rights as well as its regulatory regime for arms exports.

“It is really strange timing that Canada would be increasing a sale of arms or military equipment, let’s say, at this moment when Bahrain has been involved in violently repressing its own peaceful democracy demonstrators,” said Roland Paris, director of the Centre of International Policy Studies at the University of Ottawa.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird visited Bahrain, Algeria and Iraq earlier this year. Baird has said the trips were made as Canada is seeking to make economic headway with each of these countries.

Paris also said Baird’s relative silence on the Bahrain crackdown in particular “raises questions about the consistency of our policy and it suggests hypocrisy.”

Meanwhile, Angela Kane, the UN high representative for disarmament affairs, has called on Canada to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which aims to regulate the multi-billion dollar industry.

The UN treaty would force Canada to apply stricter rules to its export control on weapons, stated Walter Dorn, the chair of international affairs studies at the Canadian Forces College.

The report was based on the most recent figures publicly available from the Canadian government on a class of exports consisting of military weapons, guns and ammunition, along with mortars, flame throwers, howitzers, grenades and torpedoes.