Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Bergeron. Please don't take this to mean we are praising our own work, but you make a very valid point. If Project Ploughshares, or any other civil society organization, with a fraction of the resources the Canadian government has, were able to put this together,

Foreign Affairs committee  Irrespective of the specific content or the wording of the conversations, I will say that if the predictable objective application of export controls gives way to political interference, the trust is eroded. The trust and the reliability of the export control system is eroded and

Foreign Affairs committee  With respect to Mr. Leuprecht, I wholeheartedly disagree with that notion. Export controls are very well defined, especially contemporary export controls. They are meant to reduce risk and reduce human suffering, and the equation really does not allow for political consideratio

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you very much for having me here. When Project Ploughshares appeared before this committee last December, you heard that Canadian arms exports to Turkey were being unlawfully diverted to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Given the weight of the evidence,

Foreign Affairs committee  If I may, I agree with Ms. Mason. Also, in the interim, as I said earlier, our recommendation is that this very committee could establish a subcommittee to be apprised of these matters, because the risk assessment process is indeed flawed. It is reactive. Mr. Fonseca, this is

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't have my dates in front of me.

Foreign Affairs committee  Right. I can't make an educated comment on that because I don't have my timeline in front me. There have been several media reports and there have been reports by civil society related to the arms sales.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. One of the great benefits of the legislative process called Bill C-47, leading to Canada's welcome accession to the Arms Trade Treaty, was the substantial risk clause and the two words “shall not”. As a result of this inclusion of the substantial risk clause, it is not optio

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, Mr. Fonseca. Thank you. That's a good point. As I said in my opening remarks, we have been here before, where the government, faced with increased media scrutiny, announces a suspension. I will remind the members of this committee that this was not an instance of the govern

Foreign Affairs committee  We don't know the details of the risk assessment, but I would emphasize that we do know without a doubt that they have been diverted. I want to emphasize the point that this is not a matter of opinion, speculation or interpretation, or that we're trying to stretch the perceived e

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, it is, with the caveat that exports need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The technology alone paints part of the picture, but you need to look at the nature of the recipient and any related precedents that would paint the full picture around risk.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. If I may address it briefly, we were taken aback by the lifting of the moratorium to Saudi Arabia, even if it was along the pattern of “no matter what” in terms of arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Like you said, it was a decision taken in the middle of a p

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Dr. Fry. That's an excellent question. We often hear from NATO members, not just in this instance but in general, about the need to maintain military interoperability. That is often giving us a blanket reason for these dubious transactions, but as Ms. Mason said, that

Foreign Affairs committee  The minister used to have almost full authority to authorize any and all exports to any destination regardless of the human rights record of the recipient. Recently, as part of Bill C-47, which is the legislation that was getting Canada ready to accede to the Arms Trade Treaty,

Foreign Affairs committee  That is correct. That is our understanding.