{"id":186692,"date":"2018-10-23T21:53:45","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T01:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=186692"},"modified":"2018-10-23T21:53:45","modified_gmt":"2018-10-24T01:53:45","slug":"cancelling-saudi-arabia-arms-deal-cost-1-billion-trudeau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/10\/23\/cancelling-saudi-arabia-arms-deal-cost-1-billion-trudeau\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancelling Saudi Arabia arms deal would cost $1 billion: Trudeau"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cThat’s why we are pushing for real clear answers on this,\u201d he said in a Tuesday interview with the CBC. (File Photo<\/a>: Presidencia de la Rep\u00fablica Mexicana\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2014 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he doesn’t want to leave Canadians \u201cholding a billion-dollar bill\u201d by cancelling the controversial contract to sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The comments come as the Liberal government is facing new pressure to cancel the deal amid international outrage over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Canada\u00a0has added its voice to global calls for answers, with Trudeau saying on Tuesday that the Saudi government’s explanation of what happened lacks credibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s why we are pushing for real clear answers on this,\u201d he said in a Tuesday interview with the CBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unacceptable and unthinkable that someone could have murdered a journalist on foreign soil like this. That is something that the global community cannot stand for and we’re being very clear about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human rights groups have urged\u00a0Canada\u00a0to cancel the $15-billion contract to sell light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia \u2014 a 2014 deal signed by the Harper government and upheld by the Liberals.<\/p>\n

But while saying the government could suspend export permits, Trudeau said the \u201cdifficult\u201d contract is structured in a way that \u201cmakes it very difficult to suspend or leave the contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not want to leave Canadians holding a billion-dollar bill because we’re trying to move forward on doing the right thing,\u201d he added. \u201cSo we’re navigating this very carefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate interview on 1310 News in Ottawa, Trudeau said he did not want Canadians \u201cforking over billions of dollars to Saudi Arabia because we’re standing up for human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said\u00a0Canada\u00a0is \u201cgravely concerned by the murder\u201d of Khashoggi, adding there are \u201cvery important questions\u201d about the entire relationship with Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Human-rights groups have long opposed the deal over a lack of transparency and fears the Saudi government has used the Canadian-made vehicles to commit atrocities against its own people.<\/p>\n

The vehicles are being built by General Dynamics Land Systems in London, Ont.<\/p>\n

The Saudi deal has been billed as the largest arms-export contract in Canadian history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he doesn’t want to leave Canadians \u201cholding a billion-dollar bill\u201d by cancelling the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":125219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-lee-berthiaume","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}