Predictably, the military industry
representatives at the June 2 hearing gave a strong emphasis to the
repeatedly-used term, "defence."
CANSEC is organised by the Canadian
Association of Defence and Security Industries. It is a prime example of a
“special interest group,” although that is how they want to frame us.
CADSI does not represent the public, it
represents the corporate interests of 800 military industries. For its
efforts in promoting Canada’s war-industry exports, CADSI received almost
$200,000 in grants from our federal government between 2006 and 2008. These
“contributions” are explicitly earmarked for CADSI’s “international trade,”
“export marketing” and “international business development activities”.
Of course it is in CADSI’s vested interest to
use terms like defence to try to spin the whole discussion in a certain
direction.
The terms defence and security deflect
attention away from the fact that CANSEC exhibitors largely manufacture
military hardware that fuels wars now raging around the world.
