432-01148 (Foreign affairs)

WHEREAS

• Canada and Cameroon, two of the few English-French bilingual countries in the world, have nearly 60 years of direct diplomatic and development relations with over $1 billion in Canadian bilateral official development assistance provided to Cameroon since the 1960s;
• In 2016, peaceful demonstrations in Anglophone Cameroon were met with violence by Cameroonian security forces, sparking the four-year, ongoing Anglophone Crisis;
• Since 2016, human rights groups in Canada and Cameroon have documented hundreds of serious human rights abuses, including crimes against humanity.
• Thousands of people have lost their lives and more than 200 villages have been burned: Over 650,000 citizens have been displaced.
• Optical and sensor systems manufactured in Canada are used in many international military applications including helicopters, fixed wing, and drones.
• L3 Wescam products, manufactured in Ontario, are on two (and perhaps all three) of Cameroon's Cessna Caravan ISR (surveillance) aircraft.
• There are reports that one or more of these aircraft might have been used in the North West and South West Regions to carry out intelligence and reconnaissance missions to intimidate and suppress peaceful protests and/or assist security forces in conducting operations that have led to human rights abuses and war crimes.

We, the undersigned citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada, to:

1. Ensure that no further Canadian Wescam systems, spare parts, or related training or support services are exported to Cameroon given ongoing concerns that these capabilities are used to commit atrocity crimes, including performing intelligence missions to suppress opposition groups and plan extrajudicial attacks on civilians in Cameroon's Anglophone regions.

2. Ensure that no other Canadian-made military or dual use technologies, including aircraft engines and spare parts, are exported to Cameroon until there is a peaceful resolution of the Anglophone Crisis.