For folks curious about today's Canuck news:
Last fall, Trudeau issued 28.5 million in new permits for military exports to Israel, for classes of material ranging from bombs to vehicle components to electronic equipment and monitoring systems. Canadian parts also get shipped to the US to complete equipment sent by them.
This was a huge uptick for related spending, and it upset Canadians who've in the past protested Trudeau for supplying Saudi Arabia against Yemen. 1/2
So Canada's decision to block new military funding to Israel isn't an empty gesture; it's responding to a discourse that has not only been going for the last few months, but also for the last few decades.
Canadians tend to be raised on the belief that our legacy is as "peacekeepers", and the bravery of one of us against Rwandan genocide also keeps that myth alive.
But the country has also been part of the world's military actions, too - so there's a longstanding fight over identity here. 2/2
@MLClark I too was unhappy we supplied military hardware to Saudi Arabia; it's a repressive dictatorial/theocratic regime w/ a catastrophically bad human rights record, a toxic state ideology (to the point one could easily argued their principles are the antithesis of ours), & a long history of covertly sponsoring terrorism.
By contrast Israel has a fairly robust democracy, a decent human rights record (certainly no worse than ours), & an ideological base fairly compatible with pluralism...
Not just Saudi Arabia, either!
It's all about maintaining close ties with other oil economies. Same reason that Trudeau can both chatter about emissions caps while actively growing capacity in the oil industry: ostensibly, to decouple Canada from reliance on the US, at any cost, and to help boost the price of Canadian exports.
Being on good terms with SA & Qatar helps mitigate the risk of price sabotage in overseas markets.
A stain for the rest of us.
https://jacobin.com/2023/04/justin-trudeau-canada-liberal-arms-military-weapons-antidemocratic-gulf-states-qatar