5. Weapons Trade
Given that: the international weapons trade rivals the drug trade in creating human victims and that our taxes are used to subsidise Canadian participation in this unethical business;
will you, if elected, work to eliminate government funding of Canadian involvement in the arms trade?
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois opposes and condemns all commercial activity linked to arms that encourages oppression and persecution or that limits individual freedom, or that of populations, of nations or of any group. In general, the Bloc Québécois is firmly opposed t o Canada's participation, contribution or encouragement - whether directly or indirectly, actively or complacently - in any activity that is denounced by the International community, such as genocide or the violation of borders.
Canadian Alliance Party
The sale of Canadian defence materials to countries overseas is already carefully controlled. Most of this trade is conducted with Canada's allies. The Canadian Alliance believes that this trade is legitimate. At the same time, we must be vigilant to ensure that arms are not provided to states which may commit acts of unprovoked aggression against their neighbours. Accordingly, steps must be taken to address allied concerns that sensitive technologies are not sufficiently monitored and safeguarded by the current Canadian government, jeapordizing international peace and security.
Liberal Party
The Liberal government recognizes that excessive accumulations of arms can have a destabilizing effect on both the regional security situation and global order. That is why our government has worked to pro mote greater transparency in the trade of conventional weapons. Our government issues an Annual Report on the Export of Military Goods which details trade in conventional weapons, supports the United Nations' Register of Conventional Arms, and helped to create the Wassenaar Arrangement which seeks to prevent destabilizing accumulations of conventional weapons.
Canada imposes strict controls over the export of firearms, particularly for automatic weapons, which can be exports only to a small group of countries with which Canada has concluded intergovernmental defence, research, development and production agreemen t s. Our government has also signed the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and other Related Materials to better deal with the horrible effects such weapons can have on society.
New Democratic Party
No response, but the platform says that the party will: "improve arms exports control so that Canadian-made weapons are not used to fuel arms races or supply repressive regimes."
Progressive Conservative Party
No response, nothing relevant in party platform.