Social justice activist and author Monia Mazigh calls on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be courageous at home and abroad in 2019 – cancelling the sordid Saudi arms deal, promoting peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and supporting development in Yemen.
Veteran international affairs practitioner Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group previews 10 global conflicts, ongoing or incipient, that bear close scrutiny in 2019.
The government is playing a cynical waiting game, hoping the outcry over continued Canadian military assistance to Saudi Arabia’s barbarous war effort in Yemen will just die away. We must not let that happen.
We can make a real difference. Stopping our military exports will impede Saudi Arabia’s military capacity to continue to wreak havoc in Yemen. It would also be a powerful, tangible, positive demonstration of support for human rights and the rule of law, at a time when they are under global attack.
By ending arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Canada can make a real difference toward genuine accountability in the brutal Khashoggi murder and in impeding Saudi Arabia’s ability to continue its monstrous war in Yemen.
Prime Minister Trudeau has the clear legal authority to cancel the sordid Saudi arms deal in the face of unspeakable human rights abuses. But does he have the moral courage to act?