Amnesty International Canada and Project Ploughshares have urged Ottawa to suspend all arms exports to Riyadh.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been accused of violating the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), an international agreement that Canada accepted in 2019.
The report titled “No Credible Evidence” was released last Wednesday and accuses Canada of being in violation of international law by supplying KSA with weapons,
“It has been established through investigations and expert reports that Canadian weapons exports to [Saudi Arabia] are contrary to Canada’s legal obligations under the ATT,” the report reads.
“There is persuasive evidence that weapons exported from Canada to KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia], including LAVs [light-armoured vehicles] and sniper rifles, have been diverted for use in the war in Yemen,” the report found.
“Given the overriding risk posed by Canadian weapons exports to KSA, Canada must immediately revoke existing arms export permits to KSA and suspend the issuance of new ones.”
Canadian weapons exports to Saudi Arabia totalled $1.05bn ($1.31bn Canadian) in 2020, according to government figures. That was second only to the US and accounted for 67 percent of Canada’s total non-US arms exports.
