Record of the decision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to approve permits for the export of light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia

On April, 11, 2016, the record of the decision of the Minister of Foreign Affairs to approve six permits for export of light armoured vehicles and associated weapons systems, spare parts and technical data to Saudi Arabia was filed in federal court. The decision of the Minister, informed by the recommendation of Global Affairs Canada, was taken on April, 8, 2016.

As part of its recommendations, Global Affairs Canada outlined that since 1993, GLDS-C has been granted export permits by the Government of Canada for nearly 3,000 Light Armoured Vehicles (LAV) to Saudi Arabia.

Furthermore, these applications were fully consulted by Government of Canada officials to ensure that proposed exports were consistent with Canada’s defence and security interest in the Middle East. As part of this process, consultees assessed that they did not believe, based on the information available, that these exports would be used to commit human rights violations. As the conflict in Yemen has continued to evolve, this memorandum also takes into account allegations of human rights abuses by the parties to this conflict, including those contained in the Report of the UN Panel of Experts on Yemen release on February 23, 2016, as well as recent media reports of Canadian-made weapons falling into rebel force hands in Yemen.

A copy of the document, redacted in accordance with the provisions of the Canada Evidence Act, that was provided as part of the federal court case is available at the link below. The document, classified as “secret” is now considered “unclassified with redactions”.