OTTAWA
— Hundreds of people have blocked access to the opening of
CANSEC, North America’s largest weapons and “defense
industry” convention at the EY Centre in Ottawa. 40 foot
banners saying “Blood On Your Hands,” “Stop
Profiting From War,” and “Arms Dealers Not Welcome”
obstructed driveways and pedestrian entrances as attendees attempted
to register for and enter the convention centre immediately before
Canadian Defense Minister Anita Anand was slated to give the opening
keynote address.
“The
same conflicts around the world which have brought misery to millions
have brought record profits to arms manufacturers this year,”
said Rachel Small, organizer with World BEYOND War. “These war
profiteers have blood on their hands and we are making it impossible
for anyone to attend their weapons fair without directly confronting
the violence and bloodshed they are complicit in. We’re
disrupting CANSEC in solidarity with the millions of people around
the world who are being killed, who are suffering, who are being
displaced as a result of the weapons sold and military deals made by
the people and corporations inside this convention. While more than
six million refugees fled Ukraine this year, while more than 400,000
civilians have been killed in seven years of war in Yemen, while at
least 13
Palestinian children
were killed in the West Bank since the start of 2022, the weapons
companies sponsoring and exhibiting in CANSEC are raking in record
billions in profits. They are the only people who win these wars.”
Photo
by Ben Powless
Lockheed
Martin, one of the major sponsors of CANSEC, has seen their stocks
soar nearly 25 percent since the start of the new year, while
Raytheon, General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman each saw their stock
prices rise by around 12 percent. Just prior to the Russian invasion
of Ukraine, Lockheed Martin Chief Executive Officer James Taiclet
said
on an earnings call that he predicted the conflict would lead to
inflated defence budgets and additional sales for the company. Greg
Hayes, CEO of Raytheon, another CANSEC sponsor, told
investors earlier this year that the company expected to see
“opportunities for international sales” amid the Russian
threat. He added:
“I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it.”
Hayes received an annual compensation package of $23
million
in 2021, an 11% increase over the previous year.
“The
weapons, vehicles and technologies promoted at this arms show have
profound implications for human rights in this country and around the
world,” said Brent Patterson, Director of Peace Brigades
International Canada. “What is celebrated and sold here means
human rights violations, surveillance and death.”
Canada
has become one of the world’s top arms dealers globally, and is
the second
biggest weapons supplier
to the Middle East region. Most Canadian arms are exported to Saudi
Arabia and other countries engaged in violent conflicts in the Middle
East and North Africa, even though these customers were repeatedly
implicated in serious violations of international humanitarian law.
Since
the beginning of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen in early 2015,
Canada has exported approximately $7.8 billion in arms to Saudi
Arabia, primarily armored vehicles produced by CANSEC exhibitor GDLS.
Now in its seventh year, the war in Yemen has killed over 400,000
people, and created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Exhaustive
analysis
by Canadian civil society organizations has credibly shown these
transfers constitute a breach of Canada’s obligations under the
Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which regulates the trade and transfer of
weapons, given well-documented instances of Saudi abuses against its
own citizens and the people of Yemen. International groups like the
Yemen-based Mwatana
for Human Rights,
as well as Amnesty
International
and Human
Rights Watch,
have also
documented
the devastating role of bombs produced by CANSEC sponsors like
Raytheon, General Dynamics, and Lockheed Martin in air strikes on
Yemen that hit, among other civilian targets, a
marketplace,
a
wedding,
and a
school bus.
“Outside
its borders, Canadian corporations plunder the oppressed nations of
the world while Canadian imperialism benefits from its role as a
junior partner in U.S.-led imperialism’s vast complex of
military and economic warfare,” said Aiyanas Ormond, with the
International League of Peoples’ Struggle. “From its
plunder of the mineral wealth of the Philippines, to its support for
Israeli occupation, apartheid and war crimes in Palestine, to its
criminal role in the occupation and plunder of Haiti, to its
sanctions and regime change machinations against Venezuela, to arms
exports to other imperialist states and client regimes, Canadian
imperialism uses its military and police to attack the people,
suppress their just struggles for self-determination and for national
and social liberation and to maintain its regime of exploitation and
plunder. Let’s join together to shut down this war machine!”
Photo
by Ben Powless
In
2021, Canada exported more than $26 million in military goods to
Israel, an increase of 33% over the previous year. This included at
least $6 million in explosives. Last year, Canada signed a contract
to purchase drones from Israel’s largest weapons maker and
CANSEC exhibitor Elbit Systems, which supplies 85% of drones used by
the Israeli military to monitor and attack Palestinians in the West
Bank and Gaza. An Elbit Systems subsidiary, IMI Systems, is the main
provider of 5.56 mm bullets, the same type of bullet that was used by
Israeli occupation forces to murder Palestinian journalist Shireen
Abu Akleh.
CANSEC
exhibitor the Canadian Commercial Corporation, a government agency
that facilitates deals between Canadian arms exporters and foreign
governments recently brokered a $234 million deal to sell 16 Bell 412
helicopters to the military of the Philippines. Ever
since his election in 2016, the regime of Philippine president
Rodrigo Duterte has
been marked by a reign of terror
that has killed thousands under the guise of an anti-drug campaign,
including journalists, labor leaders, and human rights activists.
12,000
attendees are expected to gather for the CANSEC arms fair this year,
bringing together an estimated 306 exhibitors, including weapons
manufacturers, military technology and supply companies, media
outlets, and government agencies. 55 international delegations are
also slated to attend. The weapons expo is organized by the Canadian
Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), which
represents more than 900 Canadian defense and security companies.
Photo
by Ben Powless
BACKGROUND
Hundreds
of lobbyists in Ottawa represent arms dealers not only competing for
military contracts, but lobbying the government to shape the policy
priorities to fit the military equipment they are hawking. Lockheed
Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, BAE, General Dynamics, L-3
Communications, Airbus, United Technologies and Raytheon all have
offices in Ottawa to facilitate access to government officials, most
of them within a few blocks from Parliament. CANSEC and its
predecessor, ARMX, have faced staunch opposition for over three
decades. In April 1989, Ottawa City Council responded to opposition
to the arms fair by voting to stop the ARMX arms show taking place at
Lansdowne Park and other City-owned properties. On May 22, 1989, more
than 2,000 people marched from Confederation Park up Bank Street to
protest the arms fair at Lansdowne Park. The following day, Tuesday
May 23, the Alliance for Non-Violence Action organized a mass protest
in which 160 people were arrested. ARMX did not return to Ottawa
until March 1993 when it took place at the Ottawa Congress Centre
under the rebranded name Peacekeeping ’93. After facing
significant protest ARMX didn’t happen again until May 2009
when it appeared as the first CANSEC arms show, again held at
Lansdowne Park, which had been sold from the city of Ottawa to the
Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton in 1999.