Far be it for me to look a gift horse in the mouth. I think this is progress and I thank the Conservative government. However, it is only small progress. If we look at the change that the government is proposing, it means they are removing the exception of using a cluster munition “while on attachment, exchange or secondment, or serving under similar arrangement, with the armed forces of that state.” So there's an implicit recognition that it is wrong. It is not acceptable to use a cluster munition, explosive submunition, or explosive bomblet.
Yet if we look at paragraph 11(1)(b), they are not addressing the issue and consider it as part of the exceptions to expressly request “the use of a cluster munition, explosive submunition or explosive bomblet...if the choice of munitions used is not within the exclusive control of the Canadian Forces”.
In other words, a Canadian soldier can still expressly request the use of a cluster munition. Or if we look at the section above it, paragraph 11(1)(a), a Canadian soldier can direct or authorize “an activity that may involve the use...of a cluster munition, explosive submunition or explosive bomblet by the armed forces of that state”. So whilst the Canadian soldier cannot drop the bomb himself or herself, they can request the use of that munition. That to me, in my interpretation, is the equivalent of saying that it's acceptable for Canada to have its soldiers use cluster munitions.
So from my point of view, the amendment proposed by the government is a step in the right direction, but it contradicts itself in the sense that it is not consistently applied to the use. You can talk about indirect use, but the reality is that it is still implicitly.... As we know, if somebody commits a crime, but the other person suggests to him how to commit that crime, that person is also liable to prosecution as well.