July 29, 2008.
To: Doug Moore,
A/Director, Real Property Asset Management (RPAM) Branch
City of Ottawa
( 613-580-2424 x41301
7 613-560-2718
douglas.moore@ottawa.ca
Dear Mr. Moore,
Your letter to the office of my councillor, Diane Holmes, regarding the
scheduling of "Secure Canada 2008" and CANSEC 2009, contains some very serious
factual errors. These need to be publicly corrected so that we can proceed
towards undoing City Staff''s mistake of allowing these military trade shows to
schedule their private events at a publicly-funded facility. The City of
Ottawa must uphold its almost 20-year-old promise?which has never yet been
broken?to ban the lease of any municipal facility (including Lansdowne Park)
for events like ARMX, which was a trade show promoting the sale of military
(and police) equipment.
A copy of your letter is now posted on the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
(COAT) website:
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/CityLetter.htm
The COAT website also now includes a preliminary response to your contention
that these military trade shows are not "arms exhibitions."
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/Not_arms_show.htm
I have also posted an annotated list of the 50 or so known "Exhibitors" that
the 2008 show's organizers have so far released. I am now in the process of
highlighting the most egregious of the weapons manufacturers that appear on this
formidable list representing the military-industrial complex.
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/sc-list.htm
In determining the real nature of this event, it is also instructive to
examine the list of "Sponsors" for "Secure Canada 2008."
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/SC2008sponsors.htm
In your letter to Councillor Holmes, you posited three arguments to justify
your naive belief that the "Secure Canada 2008" arms exhibition is not really an
actual arms exhibition. Your main points on this matter are:
(1) "We are advised by the show
manager that weapons and firearms are not included in these exhibits."
(2) "It is the opinion of staff
that given the range of products and services being marketed during this event,
it does not meet the test of what one would reasonably expect to find in an
'arms exhibition.'?
(3) "Secure Canada 2008
focuses on technologies and products used for security, public safety and to a
lesser degree, defence applications...."
I hope you will take the time to click on the above links and to read my initial
refutations of your statements.
Perhaps back in 1989, City Councillors should have referred to "ARMX
and other such arms
exhibitions" by using another term. However, whatever we want to call them,
it is abundantly clear and obvious that ARMX, "Secure Canada" and CANSEC all
belong to the same category of trade show events:
Please note that the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) has begun to
post to our website a "'Secure Canada 2008'
Official Weapon System of the Week." Each week for the remainder of the summer
we will post a photo and links to information on a particular weapons system
that is manufactured by a corporation listed as an "Exhibitor" at "Secure Canada
2008." Throughout September (if the show has not been cancelled by then) we will
begin to post a "'Secure Canada 2008' Official Weapon System of the Day." This
is simply one of many ways we will endeavor to expose the kinds of very real
weapons manufacturers that are scheduled to promote their products on City
property.
This week, we are highlighting the B-2 "Spirit," a NUCLEAR BOMBER, which is
manufactured by Boeing, one of the many proud exhibitors planning to flog their
wares at the "Secure Canada 2008." This weapons system is specifically designed
to "deliver" the following quantities of armaments:
NUCLEAR
16 B61
16 B83
16 AGM-129 ACM
16 AGM-131 SRAM 2
CONVENTIONAL
80
MK82
16
MK84
36
CBU87
36
CBU89
36
CBU97
PRECISION
8
GBU 27
12
JDAM
8
AGM-154 JSOW
8
AGM-137 TSSAM
Source: Federation of American Scientists
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/bomber/b-2.htm
Coincidentally, the average cost of each B-2 bomber is US$2.1
BILLION, which is the same as the City of Ottawa's entire budget for
2007!
Source: US General Accounting Office report
http://www.fas.org/man/gao/nsiad97181.htm
One of the more (no doubt unintentionally) humourous comments in your letter to
Councillor Holmes was that you had been "advised by the show manager that
weapons and firearms are not included in these exhibits." Please be advised that
a B-2 bomber (or any of the dozens of other major weapons systems manufactured
by this particular "Secure Canada 2008" exhibitor), is somewhat too large to be
be shoe-horned through Lansdowne Park's doorways, let alone into any one (or
all) of the 8'x10' booths for lease at this arms exhibition. This however is
only one of the reasons why arms exhibitions (like so many other varieties of
trade shows) rely instead on a diverse variety of other means to showcase their
products and services. This does not mean?as you assert?that they are not "arms
exhibitions." Obviously they are.
I look forward to continuing this public discussion with you and others about
why the City of Ottawa should uphold its highly-popular, near-unanimous Motion
(of April 19, 1989) unequivocally denouncing the international arms trade and
stating "that Lansdowne Park and other city facilities not be leased to ARMX
or other such arms exhibitions.?
Yours sincerely for peace,
Richard Sanders
Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
(COAT)
Editor, Press for Conversion!
P.S. Please do not hesitate to call if you have any detailed questions about
"Secure Canada 2008," or the international trade in weapons and other tools of
war and repression which this event so ably facilitates and represents. I have
been studying these matters full-time for 25 years and would be happy to assist
you or others in any way that I can.
613-231-3076
overcoat@rogers.com
Cc: Ottawa Councillors
Bcc: Ottawa media
Please sign online PETITION now to "Stop Ottawa's Arms Shows."
(Print version: Here is a printable version of the petition that you can use to get additional signatures.)
Email: Tell the Mayor, City Councillors and Staff what you think!
Related articles:
"What do they actually mean by "Defence," "Security" and
"Public Safety"?
This webpage was produced by
the
Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT)
as part of the COAT
campaign to oppose
"Secure Canada 2008"
(Sept.30-Oct.1, 2008)