Thank Jack Harris for Successful Motion to Investigate Arms Export Permits

This is your call to action.

On October 29, 2020, the House Of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee passed a motion forwarded by Jack Harris (NDP MP for St. John’s East) to undertake a study of the granting of arms exports and permits study, with a special focus on Turkey. Some highlights of the motion include:

- “particular attention be given to any permits granted while Canada’s freeze of arms exports to Turkey that began in October 2019 was still in effect, including WESCAM sensors”

- Global Affairs Canada must produce all documents, briefing notes, memorandums and emails between the department and the Minister of Foreign Affairs’ Office, the Privy Council Office and the Prime Minister’s Office relating to granting of any such permits within 60 days or less

- the committee to report its findings to the House.

Through this study Canadians will uncover how and why during Canada’s freeze of arm exports to Turkey, permits were granted by the Canadian government for WESCAM sensors that ultimately were used by Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Artsakh. Furthermore, we hope that the conclusions of the review will lead to recommendations to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.

Today, your action is to send a letter to Mr. Harris in order to express your appreciation for introducing this motion. Please use the form below. Make sure to fill in all the required fields and you may also choose to customize your letter.

Thank you joghovoort! #Հաղթելուենք

Thank Jack Harris for Successful Motion to Investigate Arms Export Permits

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Dear Mr. Harris,

Thank you and the entire New Democratic Party for your ongoing efforts in addressing the current war in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh). We deeply appreciate your recently tabled motion to study Canadian arms exports to other countries, with a special focus on Turkey.
 
There is ample evidence that Turkey has been providing military weapons to Azerbaijan during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This, as you know, unfortunately, includes drones built with equipment produced by L3 Harris Wescam in Canada. Furthermore, Turkey has been bringing in jihadist terrorists from Syria to fight for Azerbaijan. Imagine how much worse it would be for the Canadian government if these drones, made with Canadian equipment, end up in the hands of these terrorists.

This is not just an Armenian issue. Turkey has a long history of aggression with multiple other countries, including Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Egypt, Libya, etc. They also have a long history of suppressing fundamental human rights among the minorities in their own country, such as the Kurds.

The bottom line is that any military equipment that falls in Turkey's hands is all but guaranteed to be used to violate human rights, whether it's used directly by Turkey's military or by being given to another state carrying out Turkey's agenda.

With this knowledge, how can we allow Canadian made arms to be exported to Turkey?

Thank you again for tabling this important motion. We look forward to reviewing the results of the study and hope that it will ensure that Canadian produced arms never again fall into the hands of those who would use them to carry out crimes against humanity.

Best Regards,

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