‘Is the government of Canada moving forward with suspending or dissolving actual permits, or is this some sort of ad hoc arrangement?’
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly made headlines this week by announcing that she had suspended “around 30” export permits for sales of military goods to Israel over the summer.
Speaking at a Liberal Party caucus retreat in British Columbia, Joly also suggested that her government would oppose the potential transfer of mortar cartridges manufactured by the Quebec-based General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc. (GD-OTS) to Israel via the United States.
The potential $61 million U.S. contract was announced by the U.S. State Department last month. It highlighted a glaring loophole in the Trudeau government’s claim that it had paused authorizations of new permits for military exports to Israel.
Joly did not explicitly promise to block that potential transfer in her latest comments, but insisted “we will not have any form of arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza,” and said that her ministry was in contact with GD-OTS.
Her latest comments mark a shift from previously claiming that concerns about the potential deal were “not based in fact.” According to reporting by The Globe and Mail in August, Joly initially “denied” that any such deal was in the works, and her ministry said it would “not speculate” on the potential transfer when asked about it by The Maple.
Those comments followed months of Joly claiming that all Canadian military exports to Israel were “non-lethal,” a term with no legal definition in Canada’s export control regime. (more...)
What Mélanie Joly Said And Didn’t Say About Israel Arms Exports
No comments:
Post a Comment