Bill C-233, @JennyKwanBC's private member's legislation, which seeks to close down the blatant loophole in our arms control regime that exempts from scrutiny those arms, weapons, parts & components that are sold & transferred first to the United States, before further transfer to other countries, could not be more timely. This is something that Amnesty International and many other groups and advocates decried when Canada became a party to the UN Arms Trade Treaty and passed the necessary implementing legislation back in 2019. It was dismissed then, it can no longer be ignored. parl.ca/LegisInfo/en/bill/45… A new report released today from the Arms Embargo Now campaign documents "hundreds of shipments from Canadian military manufacturers to the U.S. weapons factories that manufacture Israel’s key warplanes, bombs, and artillery shells." It puts the lie to the frequent Canadian government assertions that we are not sending arms to Israel. It demonstrates in stark terms why the reforms included in C-233 are so urgently necessary. armsembargonow.ca/.../Exposi…... Also today I've seen a copy of what appear to be deeply troubling, inaccurate and inflammatory briefing notes for Liberal MPs, encouraging them to vote against and defeat C-233, insisting that the Bill is a "misguided piece of legislation that would undermine Canada’s security, weaken our alliances, and decimate our defence industry" and asserting that "Canada has one of the world’s strongest military export control systems." The talking points are full of unsubstantiated hyperbole including that C-233 would constrain the capabilities of the Canadian Armed Forces, apparently by "impeding their operations in vital regions, like the Arctic," which is blatantly unfounded fearmongering given that the Bill applies to arms exports, not imports. The bottom line is that claims to have one of the world's best arms control regimes will remain empty as long as that system exempts the one country to which we sell and transfer more arms, weapons, parts and components than any other, namely the United States. The United States is of course not a party to the UN Arms Trade Treaty, and is, by far, the primary source of arms and weapons imported by Israel. Those arms and weapons have been at the heart of two years of genocide in Gaza. Canada's arms trade cannot in any way be allowed to be a part of that deadly commerce. This is not about our "alliances" and the health of our "defence industry", it is about preventing and certainly not being complicit in genocide. To suggest otherwise is a craven abdication of some of our most important international obligations. Continuing to allow the US loophole is a contravention of our obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty, with deadly consequences for Palestinians. C-233 is scheduled for Second Reading debate tomorrow, November 19. All MPs should express their support. It is a matter of international law, it is a matter of saying no to genocide, it is a matter of conscience.