Canada fights off court challenge over Saudi arms

The $11-billion deal for exporting light armored vehicles (LAVs) to Saudi Arabia was negotiated by Canada’s former conservative government and endorsed by the liberal government of Justin Trudeau in April.

Anti-war activist and law professor Daniel Turp, who is challenging the contract to halt the military export, argues that the Saudi monarchy could use the armored vehicles to violate human rights, including in its war on Yemen.

The federal government lawyers say Turp is not entitled to fight the case in court because he is not personally a victim of a crime under humanitarian law.

The government also countered Turp’s argument, saying there was no evidence that Riyadh had ever used previously-purchased Canadian LAVs against civilians.

The lawyers of the Canadian government say the arms deal is aimed at helping Saudi Arabia as Ottawa’s “key military ally who backs efforts of the international community … in Iraq and Syria and the instability in Yemen.”

“To give arms to a country that uses them to violate human rights is to contribute to that violation,” Andre Lesperance, a former federal lawyer representing Turp, told a federal court in Montreal.

Multiple rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have on various occasions reported the use of illegal cluster bombs by the kingdom in Yemen.