Greens Join Call for Ottawa to Respect Ban on Arms Shows

OTTAWA--Despite a longstanding ban, the city of Ottawa plans to host the country’s largest trade show of military armaments.   Fiercely opposed by peace and social justice activists, the CANSEC event, put on by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), will showcase weapons such as anti-personnel cluster bombs, fragmentation bombs and phosphorous bombs, as well as automatic weapons, semi-automatic weapons, machine guns and chain guns.  “The arms show is a symbol of how profit is inextricably linked with the enterprise of war,” said Ellen Michelson, Green Critic for Peace and Security.  “Holding such an event in our nation’s capital sends a terrible message, and calls into question our commitment to peace.”

In 1989, after considerable public pressure, Ottawa's City Council passed a near-unanimous motion banning all future arms shows from municipal property, a motion which they now say doesn’t apply to the proposed venue due to a legal technicality.  "It is simply outrageous that established policy on such a controversial event is being bypassed without debate by elected municipal representatives.  Who is in charge here?  Who hid behind deliberate misinterpretation to allow this event to proceed?" asked Eric Walton, Green International Affairs Critic.

A report by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT) states that some CANSEC exhibitors also manufacture components of weapons such as depleted uranium munitions, anti-personnel cluster bombs, and anti-personnel land mines.  “Facilitating an arms show featuring these firms makes a mockery of the international leadership Canada displayed in discouraging these weapons with the Ottawa Treaty to ban anti-personnel land mines in 1997, now supported by more than 150 nations.  Instead, it indicates the complicity of our country in the horrors that these weapons have unleashed on civilians around the world,” said Ms. Michelson.

"Greens embrace the commitment to a culture of peace.  Canada must return to our historic strengths as a peace-maker and reject the arms merchants and the business of making money making war. For the world to be peaceful, governments must invest in peace," said Green Leader Elizabeth May.

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Contact:
Michael Bernard
Communications Officer
Green Party of Canada
613-562-4916 ext. 244
(c) 613-614-4916
michael.bernard@greenparty.ca