{"id":186941,"date":"2018-10-25T05:05:55","date_gmt":"2018-10-25T09:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=186941"},"modified":"2018-10-25T05:05:55","modified_gmt":"2018-10-25T09:05:55","slug":"trudeau-says-canadians-expect-consequences-khashoggi-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/10\/25\/trudeau-says-canadians-expect-consequences-khashoggi-murder\/","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau says Canadians expect ‘consequences’ for Khashoggi murder"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWe believe that setting the legal age to (match) the age of alcohol consumption is a compromise that makes sense.\u201d (File Photo<\/a>: Justin Trudeau\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OTTAWA \u2014 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to be inching closer Wednesday to cancelling\u00a0Canada’s $15-billion deal to sell light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Trudeau seemed reluctant to cancel the deal, billed as the largest arms deal in Canadian history. He cited significant financial penalties \u2014 as much as $1 billion or more \u2014 built into the contract signed by the previous Conservative government.<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday he said Canadians expect there to be \u201cconsequences\u201d for the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed earlier this month after entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey. And he suggested his government is looking for ways to cancel the arms contract without triggering the penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a looking at … suspending export permits, which is something we’ve done in the past,\u201d Trudeau said on his way into a Liberal caucus meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWere also looking at the contract to try and see what we can do because obviously, as we get clarity on what actually happened to Jamal Khashoggi, Canadians and people around the world will expect consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Saudi government has said Khashoggi died in a fist fight, but\u00a0Canada\u00a0and other countries say Riyadh’s explanation lacks credibility and are calling for a detailed investigation.<\/p>\n

Turkish officials say a 15-man Saudi hit squad \u2014 including at least one member of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage \u2014 murdered and dismembered Khashoggi, whose body has not been found.<\/p>\n

Prince Mohammed said Wednesday that the killing of Khashoggi is a \u201cheinous crime that cannot be justified.\u201d He made the comment at the Future Investment Initiative, the second annual summit of global investors in Riyadh.<\/p>\n

Many international business leaders have pulled out of this year’s summit over the killing of Khashoggi. But several Canadian companies refuse to say whether they’re attending.<\/p>\n

SNC-Lavalin, which has extensive business ties with Saudi Arabia, will not say whether it has sent anyone to the summit. Canaccord Genuity Group Inc., whose executive chairman was listed as a speaker at last year’s summit, and Bombardier Inc. did not respond to queries.<\/p>\n

Other companies that attended last year \u2014 including the\u00a0Canada\u00a0Pension Plan Investment Board and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. \u2014 say they won’t be going this year.<\/p>\n

A senior government insider told The Canadian Press last week that cabinet ministers, federal officials and embassy staff would also be skipping the summit.<\/p>\n

Canada\u00a0is not the only country soul-searching over its arms sales to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Khashoggi killing.<\/p>\n

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that continued arms exports to the regime \u201ccan’t take place in the situation we’re currently in.\u201d Her economy minister called Monday for a common front on the issue by all European Union countries.<\/p>\n

Merkel and Trudeau spoke over the phone Wednesday about Khashoggi’s killing, with both leaders reaffirming \u201ctheir shared commitment to freedom of the press,\u201d according to a readout of the conversation.<\/p>\n

Trudeau and Merkel \u201cstrongly agreed on the need for transparency and accountability for those who committed this act,\u201d the readout stated.<\/p>\n

While Slovakia and Czech Republic have signalled a willingness to discuss the matter, Spain and the United Kingdom have rejected calls to end arms exports to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

The United States \u2014 by far the largest supplier of arms to the Gulf kingdom \u2014 has also balked, with President Donald Trump saying he doesn’t want to lose a 10-year, $110-billion deal to sell arms to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International\u00a0Canada\u00a0blasted Trudeau on Wednesday for his concern over the financial penalty for breaking\u00a0Canada’s arms contract with Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

\u201cHuman rights do not and can never carry a price tag,\u201d said the group’s secretary general, Alex Neve.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is nothing in\u00a0Canada’s international human rights obligations that sets a financial limit on our responsibility to comply. Any other approach would be unconscionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neve also said Canadians deserve to know more about the penalties, including who would receive the money: Saudi Arabia or General Dynamics Land Systems, whose plant in London, Ont., is building the light-armoured vehicles. The government has so far declined to offer details, citing commercial confidentiality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to be inching closer Wednesday to cancelling\u00a0Canada’s $15-billion deal to sell light armoured …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":185389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-joan-bryden","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186941","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=186941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}