Oppose the Sale of Arms to Saudi Arabia

Canada is presently engaged in a $15 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, a brutal and oppressive regime guilty of war crimes in neighbouring Yemen and rated amongst the ten worst countries in the world for workers’ rights. 

We are calling for labour opposition to this deal, and government action to cancel it.

Recommendation adopted at the November 19, 2019, regular meeting

Subject:  Oppose the Sale of Arms to Saudi Arabia

BECAUSE there is an urgent need to draw attention to the actions of Saudi Arabia and its Western allies in Yemen; and

BECAUSE the UN has found Saudi Arabia and its Western allies complicit in war crimes in Yemen; and

BECAUSE the Saudi-led intervention has contributed to what the United Nations calls the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis”; and

BECAUSE Saudi ranks in the International Confederation of Trade Union’s “10 Worst Countries in the World for Workers’ Rights.”; and

BECAUSE Canada has a $15 billion arms deal with the Saudi Arabia; and

BECAUSE as member of the global labour movement, and an internationalist labour council, we have a responsibility to promote solidarity and to take actions that ensure human rights and the safety and security workers and communities are not being undermined;

THE VANCOUVER AND DISTRICT LABOUR COUNCIL WILL oppose the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia; and

THE VANCOUVER AND DISTRICT LABOUR COUNCIL WILL FURTHER write to Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff calling upon the CLC to do the same, and to declare military goods destined for Saudi Arabia to be “hot cargo”.