Canadian war
industries are flogging their wares at IDEX, the largest weapons bazaar in
the Middle East and North Africa. Over 1,000 exhibitors from 52 countries
and over 60,000 attendees have converged on the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
for IDEX 2013. This huge arms show is a golden opportunity for Canadian
military exporters to schmooze with procurement officials from the US client
states that dominate this oil-rich region. IDEX is also a great place to
rub shoulders with many of the world's most-profitable war industries. For
example, of the world's 35 top-ranking military companies, 28 of them are
exhibiting their deadly products at IDEX. (World's
Top War Industries at IDEX 2013)
"We’re excited to see such a large number of Canadian exhibitors," said Arif
Lalani, Canada's ambassador to the UAE. "These companies represent the best
Canadian capabilities and technologies in a number of areas of the defence
and security sector." (Gulf
News, February 17, 2013) This year, the Canadian companies
exhibiting at IDEX are promoting everything from aerial drones and robotic
land vehicles with weapons mounts, to armoured fighting vehicles ready for
desert battles. Other vehicles on display are used by tactical urban SWAT
teams. Canada's so-called "defence and security" companies are also
marketing a variety of gas masks, optical scopes for machine guns,
night-vision sights for weapons targeting, and flight simulators used to
train fighter pilots and for the rehearsal of bombing sorties. Canadian-run
training courses promoted at IDEX include everything from protecting VIPs,
to smashing down doors and gates, and the firing of semi-automatic pistols,
carbines and sniper rifles. (Canadian
Companies exhibiting at IDEX 2013)
But the largest display of Canadian military might is the HMCS Toronto.
This multi-billion dollar Canadian frigate docked in the UAE for NAVDEX, an
international Navy exhibition that runs alongside IDEX. The HMCS Toronto
is back in the Persian Gulf as part of a multinational, US-led armada called
Coalition Task Force-150 (CTF-150). It has been fighting the so-called "War
on Terror" since 2002. In 2003, when CTF-150 was commanded by Canadian Navy
Commodore Roger Girouard, it escorted US warships safely into position so
they could unleash devastating air strikes during the opening
"shock-and-awe" salvoes of the Iraq War. For six months in 2004, the HMCS
Toronto
operated with the USS George Washington Carrier Strike Group, which launched
more than 1,500 warplane sorties that dropped 82 tons of ordnance on Iraqi
targets. (Operation
SILENT PARTNER: Canada’s Quiet Complicity in the Iraq War)
While loudly preaching peace and human rights, Canadian governments -- both
Conservative and Liberal alike -- have quietly facilitating the steady flow
of weapons, ammunition, tear gas, armoured vehicles and many other so-called
"defence and security" products into the hands of repressive, undemocratic
regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. (Canada's
Military Exports to the Middle East and North Africa) Thanks to many
decades of US-led coups, regime changes and wars in this region, US proxies
have been empowered to carry out widespread, violent and systematic abuses
of human rights, including the torture and extrajudicial killings of
pro-democracy activists. The continued transfer of military and police
equipment from the US, Canada and other supposedly "developed" countries to
the repressive autocratic regimes is aided and abetted by massive arms trade
shows like IDEX.
"Canada First":
New Government Plan Promotes Canadian Arms Exports
This year's IDEX comes soon after the release of a Canadian government
report called "Canada
First: Leveraging Procurement Through Key Industrial Capabilities"
(February 12, 2013). This report enthusiastically promotes a new strategy
for expanding Canada's role as a global military producer and exporter. The
plan is to use government financing to boost specific military-industry
sectors, based in part on their "success in penetrating global markets." The
report states that "Canadian defence-related industries must become even
more export-oriented beyond their current 50% level" because "the key to
sustainable long term growth lies in export markets."
The report was overseen by Tom Jenkins, an Honourary Colonel in the Canadian
Reserves who is the Executive Chairman of OpenText, Canada's largest
software company. OpenText software is used by many armed forces around the
world. In fact, military applications of OpenText products are glowingly
highlighted on
almost 600 webpages within the company's website. And, the official
website of the F-35 stealth fighter/bomber lists OpenText as one of its
Canadian Partners.
While the Jenkins' report sadly anticipates a reduction in US and European
military spending on weapons systems, it looks with hope towards "the
fastest growing markets...in the Middle East, South and East Asia and South
America, with overall expected growth of over 40% from 2009 to 2016."
In describing this new government report, a widely-published media article,
called "Report
touts Canada as arms maker" (February 13, 2013), began by saying: "The
federal government is examining ways to turn Canada into a major arms
producer...."
Unfortunately, the bad news is that Canada already is "a major arms
producer." But the worse news is that the Harper government is aiming to
give even more support to Canadian military export industries to aid them in
their efforts to grab a greater share of the international arms market.
Another corporate media item about IDEX,
is nothing short of an advertisement for Streit Group, a Canadian-owned
company headquartered in the UAE which is showing off its military, police,
SWAT-force and "private security" vehicles at the arms show. ("Canadian
Firm to Display 15 of its Armoured Vehicles at IDEX," February 18,
2013.) After glowingly describing each of the company's 15 armoured
assault, fighting and command vehicles being exhibited at IDEX, the piece
concludes: "There are currently more than 10,000 Streit Group vehicles
operating internationally with a record of zero occupant casualties." While
this may be true, it completely ignores the question of casualties caused by
occupants of Streit Group vehicles.
Thanks largely to such corporate journalism, most
Canadians have no idea that Canada is a significant military exporter to the
Middle East or elsewhere. And, whatever information Canadians do glean from
the media about Canada's role in the international arms trade is always
couched in deceptive euphemisms like "defence and security," which disguise
the use of such Canadian products as if they were promoting world peace and
public safety.
Canada already is a Major
Arms Producer
Canadian military companies had $12.6 billion in annual revenues in 2011.
Of that, about half was exported. This means that every year Canadian
military industries are exporting more than $6 billion worth of products and
services. Of that, about 75% -- or some $4.5 billion worth of Canada's
military exports per year -- are flowing south, and straight into the US war
machine. (Stoking
the Tsunamis of War and Repression)
Most Canadians don't know that our
country is also a significant arms exporter to so-called "developing
nations." For example, between 2004 and 2011, Canada was the world's 9th
largest arms exporter to the "developing world," with $6.7 billion in direct
sales to these countries. (Conventional
Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2004-2011, p.80.)
For many years, the second largest buyer of
Canadian military products has been Saudi Arabia. This repressive,
undemocratic monarchy has purchased about $2 billion dollars worth of
armoured vehicles from Canada. The top Canadian culprit in this trade is
General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) based in London, Ontario. Canadian
armoured fighting vehicles and accessories have also been sold to other
countries in the region, including Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Turkey and
the UAE. (Canadian
Exports of Armoured Fighting Vehicles to the Middle East and North Africa)
The Canadian government's Jenkins' report, which extols GDLS as "a world
leader in the design, manufacture and support of wheeled
Light Armoured Vehicles," highlights this company's global exports in a
special section called "Canadian Defence Industry Success Stories." In this
section, GDLS is praised for having exported $17 billion worth of these
Canadian-made battle vehicles around the world. For example, the GDLS sale
of 4,500 "Strykers" to the US army between 2001 and 2011 is valued at $9.5
billion. (Canada
First, p.4) As a result, the report's authors seem to expect Canadians
to be proud that our country has profited from building armoured fighting
vehicles that have been used so extensively by US warfighters in the Afghan
and Iraq wars.
How Canadian Military Products get to the Middle East
There are three main ways that Canadian military technology ends up in the
Middle East. The most obvious way is for Canadian arms companies to sell
their products directly to governments in the region. IDEX is, of
course, an excellent venue for facilitating such direct exports.
Another route is exemplified by the GDLS "Strykers." Canadian-made weapons
systems, like military vehicles, are sold to the US or other allies which
then deploy them to wage wars in the Middle East. Another example of this
is Colt Canada in Kitchener Ontario which makes semi- and fully-automatic
assault rifles, carbines and sniper weapons. Used by the UK and other
European militaries, these Canadian small arms have made their way to
killing fields of Iraq.
The third avenue by which Canadian military hardware gets to the Middle East
is also indirect, and may be less obvious, but it is nonetheless probably
the most significant. Because Canada's military production is largely
focused on serving the interests of the US war machine, the fact is that
much of our military production is in the form of high-tech components
destined for assembly into major US weapons systems.
In this way, a large portion of Canada's military technology ends up being
embedded in major American weapons systems that are then either used by US
forces in Middle East wars, or sold by the US to its many proxy states in
that region.
For example, between 2008 and 2011, the US sold about $21.8 billion worth of
weapons to 10 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. This was more
than the rest of the world put together managed to sell to the region during
that same period. The largest recipients of US weapons in the region were
Saudi Arabia ($5.9 billion), Egypt ($3.9 billion), Israel ($3.8 billion),
Iraq ($2.6 billion), UAE ($2.2 billion) and Kuwait ($1.3 billion). (Conventional
Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2004-2011, p.59)
The two largest recipients of US military aid in the world, are both in the
Middle East, namely Israel and Egypt, which now receive annual handouts
totaling $3.1 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively. This $4.4 billion
that they collectively receive as part of the US Foreign Military Financing
(FMF) program is used to purchase US-made weapons systems. This amounts to
about 85% of the total FMF program. (Foreign
Military Financing Program, 2013) But, although these and other FMF
recipients must purchase US-made weapons, these virtually always contain
many significant Canadian components.
For example, the US concluded arms transfer agreements with developing
nations that totaled $56.3 billion in 2011. This was almost 83% of all such
agreements reached by the world's weapons-exporting nations. Amazingly
however, over half of all these US arms transfer agreements in 2011 were
with one country, namely, Saudi Arabia. These agreements, totaling $29
billion, were for the provision of 84 new F-15 warplanes, the upgrading of
70 F-15s already in the Saudi arsenal, and various weapons, ammunition and
missiles used by these F-15s.
This is a huge boon for many Canadian military exporters who will be working
hard to keep up with new orders for a wide variety of high-tech components
that are featured within F-15s. COAT research has found that at least 30
Canadian companies have supplied the US with products and services tailored
to the F-15. (Canadian
War Industries Exporting Parts and/or Services to the USA for the F-15 "Eagle")
This pattern repeats itself for every
major US weapon system researched by COAT. Dozens of jet fighters and
bombers, attack helicopters and other weapons systems used in the Iraq War
are thoroughly embedded with Canadian hardware. (Canada's
Top War Exporters at the CANSEC 2009 Weapons Bazaar)
This, to a very large extent, is how Canadian military products find their
way to the Middle East and North Africa. They are embedded in US weapons
that are either sold to the slew of repressive US client states in the region,
or they have been used there by the US military itself during the litany of
wars, invasions, regime changes and coups that have riddled the Middle East
with repressive regimes. (See The U.S. Role in Wars and Regime Changes in
the Middle East and North Africa since World War II)
CADSI: Representing Canada's War Industries Representing about 945 Canadian corporations, the
largest lobby group advocating for the the profit-driven needs of this
special interest group, is the Canadian Association of Defence and
Security Industries (CADSI).
CADSI lobbyists meet regularly with leading
Canadian politicians and have received generous federal government funding
for their tireless promotion of Canada's military exports.
As the top cheerleader for Canada's war industries, CADSI has recently
played a major role in influencing the Jenkins' report on how the government
should help to support Canadian military production, and increase arms
exports.
CADSI has also been doing its level best
to help promote this year's IDEX weapons bazaar. Speaking glowingly of IDEX
as a forum for Canadian military exporters to get in on the action of
selling their products to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), CADSI's
website proclaims:
"The defence spending forecast across the MENA region for the 10 years 2010
– 2020 is US$1,233 billion.... With defence budgets declining in many
countries, now is the time to focus your sales effort to this region."
CADSI then goes on to excitedly tell its corporate members that
"If you want to make an impact in a region where defence and security
spending continues to be robust, IDEX is the place to be!"
But besides lobbying for more government
handouts to support Canada's war exporters, and cheerleading for Canadian
companies at IDEX, CADSI also organises its very own annual military trade
show in Ottawa. This arms exhibition, called CANSEC -- which had about 270
exhibitors in 2012 -- is Canada's largest weapons bazaar. CANSEC 2013 is
scheduled for May 29-30.
CADSI's arms bazaar is held in Ottawa because as the nation's capital, this
is the seat of Canadian political power. And, as the location of Canada's
Department of National Defence, Ottawa is also the centre of Canadian
military power, where thousands of users of military technology are based.
But Ottawa is also the best location for CANSEC because this is where all of
the foreign embassies and high commissions are located. CADSI always makes
sure to invite representatives of foreign governments to browse the Canadian
war industry exhibits at the CANSEC trade show. What better way to foster
increased Canadian military production and exports than putting arms
producers, dealers, users and buyers all together in one place?
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