e-2786 (Foreign affairs)

Petition to the Government of Canada

• The people of Yemen are experiencing “the worst” humanitarian crisis in the world according to the U.N.;
• About 230,000 people have died due to war and related social and environmental impacts according to the U.N.;
• Approximately 80% of Yemen’s population (24.1 million people) requires humanitarian assistance according to the Brookings Institute;
• Yemen has insufficient resources to address the COVID-19 pandemic and other public health emergencies, including child malnutrition and a cholera epidemic;
• The Saudi Arabian-led coalition, backed by the United States, Britain, and France among other nations has been suspected by the U.N. of human rights violations;
• Human Rights Watch (HRW) has documented at least 90 unlawful air strikes by the Saudi-led coalition;
• Canadian-made Light Armoured Vehicles have been reported, photographed and filmed at the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border;
• Canadian-made military goods have been photographed in the conflict in Yemen;
• Canadian sales of military equipment doubled in 2019 to $3 billion despite the moratorium on new arms deals;
• The Canadian government lifted the moratorium on new arms and trade deals with Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020;
• Human rights organizations, including HRW and Amnesty International, have identified Canadian arms and trade deals with Saudi Arabia to be complicit in the perpetration of war crimes;
• Canada can no longer claim status as a peacekeeping nation while procuring lethal military equipment and supporting the Saudi-led coalition forces.