CANADA SEE

By James Young

As the the Iran-Contra affair made daily headlines in the United States in November 1986, Canadi- ans were shocked by re- ports that Canadian-built helicopter parts had been shipped to Iran, with Ot- tawa’s approval. Experts said the engine compo- nents could be used_ by military helicopters in the war against Iraq, a con- flict which had already left 500,000 dead.

Canadians’ shock was not really justified. There was indeed scandal and embarrassment on Parlia- ment Hill, since the ship- ments flouted a policy to refuse direct arms sales to war zones. But Canadian aircraft engines were al- ready being used by both Iran and Iraq, after be- ing “transformed” into mil- itary equipment in factories in Switzerland and Brazil.

The Iranian parts are not the exception to the rule.

The Canadian arms in- dustry has been involved in almost all the world’s cur- rent trouble spots includ- ing the U.S. bombing of Libya in the spring of 1986, the invasion of Grenada in 1983, and the on-going civil war in El Salvador. In addition, Canadian arms > manufacturers play a large part in the construction of American nuclear missiles.

This information, ac- companied by a wealth of documentation, is provided © by Ernie Regehr, in his new book, Arms Canada: The Deadly Business of Military Exports. =

“Canadians are reluc- tant to include the role of weapons merchant in their self-definition,” says Regehr, research director for Project Ploughshares at the University of Waterloo.

But Canada’s arms ex- port industry is now worth $2 billion annually. Eighty- five per cent of these ex- ports go to the U.S. but there are further direct shipments to at least 45 countries, including such brutal human rights viola- tors as Chile, Guatemala, Pakistan and South Korea.

“Canada’s production of military commodities for

Stnees 4

ENTREPRENURIAL VENTURE

Graphic/Link

export has tripled within the past six years,” says Regehr.

With 20 million casual- ties in the 100 wars in the third world since 1945, and Canada producing about one per cent of the weapons and components exported there, Regehr infers that our country has been re- sponsible : for 200,000 deaths abroad. The estimate may not be verifiable, but it makes a point — Canadians are un- witting participants in in- ternational violence.

Researching Arms Canada was not easy, says Regehr, thanks to gov- ernment secrecy and the so- called Access to Informa- tion Act.

In November 1985, af- ter requesting information on the permits which ac- company military exports, Regehr received a sample from External Affairs, with the explanation that “you will note that considerable information will probably be exempted.”

Regehr calls that note |

“a remarkable example of understatement”. The sample permit was essen- tially a blank piece of pa- per.

The accompanying let- ter went on to say that the rest of the documents would cost $3000, the price of censoring them.

But Regehr feels confi- dent his own research is ac-

‘curate.

“I’ve been told that Ex- ternal Affairs had intended to really tear strips off it (the book) if they found er- rors,” he says. “In fact, they haven’t found those errors, and so they’ve been very, very silent.”

Overall, Regehr says the Mulroney government has continued the disturb- ing long-term trend of sup- porting the arms industry as a commercial venture — instead of one designed to meet legitimate Cana- dian defence needs. He points to a structural weak- ness within External Af- fairs, as the department in- cludes both programs to re- strain military exports and to promote them.

The Defence Programs Bureau, for example, pub- lishes a glossy catalog of military products, offering foreign buyers wares rang- ing from plastic watercans to jet aircraft and clothing for protection from nuclear, chemical or biological war- fare.

The bureau also ar- ranges trade fairs — which exclude the public — for promoting military prod- ucts,

Another federal project, the Defence In- dustries Productivity Pro- gram, has given out hun- dreds of millions of dollars

_—————————————————— = — => Thursd

, October 8 1987

in subsidies since its cre-

ation in 1959.

“The really high flying arms dealers are not sheiks and soldiers of fortune, but middle level bureaucrats in drab middle level govern- ment offices,” says Regehr.

But Regehr also criti- cizes External Affairs min- ister, Joe Clark, who went to Saudi Arabia to hawk a fleet of light armored vehi- cles to the royal family in 1986. By doing so, Clark gave high profile support to sales of active combat equipment in a_ militarily sensitive area, to a govern- ment which supplies arms to Iraq and favours the Palestine Liberation Orga- nization.

In the rest of Arms Canada, Regehr examines the economic delusions be- hind the arms industry as a job creator, and points to how relying on Ameri- can markets can undermine Canadian independence in foreign policy.

S ARMS INDUSTRY AS JUST ANOTHER

In the final chapter, Regehr proposes ten alter- native export policies the federal government could adopt. The most es- sential is to realize “all Canadian military produc- tion should grow out of Canadian-defined military needs” instead of view- ing the arms industry as a commercial enterprise. Countering entrepreneurial rhetoric, Regehr argues that no one has a “right” to manufacture and market weapons.

The ulti- mate entrepreneurial irony was perhaps when British troops in the Falklands were attacked by British- made weapons.

Moreover, arms. ex- ports should be undertaken only on a government-to- government consis-

tent with Canadian foreign

basis,

policy objectives promoting international stability.

Canada also needs more effective control over the final destination of mil- itary goods and must refuse them to human rights viola- tors. And there should be a full annual public disclosure and review of exports.

“Canadians are not without choices,” says Regehr. “On the one hand, this country has the techni- cal and financial resources to become a strong com- petitor in the race to make the weapons of war widely available in an unrestrained global arms bazaar.”

“On the other hand, it has the political and moral resources to resist dealing in weapons for the eco- nomic fun of it.” a