{"id":75293,"date":"2021-11-19T13:13:59","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T18:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=75293"},"modified":"2024-09-01T09:54:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T13:54:47","slug":"simon-black-jobs-are-no-excuse-canada-must-stop-arming-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2021\/11\/simon-black-jobs-are-no-excuse-canada-must-stop-arming-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"SIMON BLACK: Jobs are no excuse \u2014 Canada must stop arming Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Simon Black, Associate Professor of Labour Studies at Brock University, had a piece recently published in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/jobs-are-no-excuse-canada-must-stop-arming-saudi-arabia-171792\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Conversation<\/a><\/em> where he advocates that Canada end its shipments of light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia while also finding new roles for the jobs that would be affected by that decision.<\/p>\n<p>He writes:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIn a federal election campaign dominated by domestic issues,\u00a0foreign policy received scant attention. Nonetheless, few issues bridge the divide between domestic concerns and Canada\u2019s role in the world like Canadian arms exports to Saudi Arabia.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Re-elected for a third term, Justin Trudeau\u2019s Liberal government can forge a progressive foreign policy that weds concern for human rights abroad with its desire for a strong economy and good jobs at home \u2014 but that will require ending the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The bulk of Canadian arms exports to the Saudis are light armoured vehicles, known as LAVs \u2014\u00a0wheeled military vehicles armed with various weapons, including automatic cannons and machine guns. In 2014,\u00a0Stephen Harper\u2019s Conservative government brokered the sale of hundreds of LAVs, manufactured by General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada in London, Ont., to Saudi Arabia\u2019s National Guard. Trudeau\u2019s Liberals\u00a0formally approved LAV exports soon after coming to power in 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>Harper\u00a0recently defended the LAV deal, saying he was \u201cproud this constructive relationship [with Saudi Arabia] helped secure jobs for Canadians through the largest export manufacturing contract in Canada\u2019s history.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>Under pressure from critics, the Liberals\u00a0have defended LAV exports on similar terms, claiming that cancelling the contract would \u201cput the jobs of thousands of Canadians at risk, not only in southwestern Ontario but also across the entire defence industry supply chain, which includes hundreds of small and medium enterprises.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Worth an estimated $14 billion, the\u00a0contract supports an estimated 3,000 jobs in London. In a city hard hit by\u00a0plant closures,\u00a0the jobs argument has gained traction.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Continue reading the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/jobs-are-no-excuse-canada-must-stop-arming-saudi-arabia-171792\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Simon Black, Associate Professor of Labour Studies at Brock University, had a piece recently published in The Conversation where he advocates that Canada end its shipments of light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia while also finding new roles for the jobs that would be affected by that decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45641,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,6,38],"tags":[110,522,3856,5512],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75294,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75293\/revisions\/75294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}