Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity to present before this distinguished committee.

Distinguished members of the committee, contrary to government claims, Canada does not have one of the strongest export control systems in the world.

This is not a matter of opinion or interpretation. The annual reports on Canadian military exports prepared by Global Affairs Canada confirm an unassailable fact: Today, most Canadian arms exports help to sustain autocratic regimes, to perpetuate armed conflict or to enable the violation of human rights.

A recent example concerns Canadian military exports to Turkey. Optical sensors produced in Ontario by L3Harris Wescam have been found in numerous other conflict zones including Syria, Iraq and Libya. Most recently, they were used by Azerbaijan in attacks against Armenian targets in Nagorno-Karabakh. These exports pose a substantial risk of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. In the case of Libya, they constitute a blatant breach of an arms embargo imposed by the UN Security Council.

Canada's suspension of arms exports to Turkey following reports of misuse was welcome and necessary, but if recent history is any indication, it could be short-lived.

This was the fourth time in just over three years that Canada has announced the suspension of export permits to a country accused of violating international law. Two of the incidents involved Saudi Arabia, the top destination for Canadian arms exports, and one of the worst violators of human rights on the planet. Each time the suspension was eventually lifted when the media scrutiny died down. In the case of the Saudi exports, the suspensions did not stop a single export because they only applied to future permits.

The troubling reality is that the Canadian arms industry has become alarmingly linked with disreputable regimes that are engaged in some of the world's most devastating conflicts. We are aware that this view clashes with the carefully crafted government discourse on the high standards of rigour and transparency that purportedly inform Canada's arms export decisions, but the evidence is sturdy and compelling.

The world is taking notice. In September of this year, the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen, mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council, issued a report that confirmed not only the pattern of human rights abuses by all parties to the conflict but also the role that Canada and other arms exporters to the warring parties have played to perpetuate the crisis.

There is a clear gap between rhetoric and practice around Canadian arms exports. It is high time for strict parliamentary oversight of this important aspect of Canadian foreign policy. A place to start might be the establishment of a subcommittee of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development to ensure compliance with domestic and international law, including Canada's obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty.

I will give the floor to my colleague Kelsey Gallagher.

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