Should trade trump human rights when jobs are at stake?

“Isolationism is not the answer”  if you want to encourage change and promote Canadian values when dealing with countries that violate human rights, former Conservative cabinet minister Ed Holder said as he prepares to lead a group of business leaders to Saudi Arabia Monday.

Holder, the newly-appointed chair of the Canada Saudi Business Council joined Tom Clark on The West Block Sunday to discuss his trade mission to the Middle Eastern country.

Holder said as chair of the council, his job is to promote the Canadian economy and jobs here at home.

When pressed on the controversy surrounding the federal government’s decision to go ahead and sign the export permit for the $15-billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, Holder said he would “let the federal government deal with the issues” but he added, “to suggest we not trade with those countries would be to our economic peril and that is not in the interest of Canada.”

The federal government has been under pressure to release details of the Saudi arms deal and export permits signed earlier this month.  Late last week, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephan Dion told members of the House of Commons his government ” take(s) very seriously the review we are doing about the export permits. It is a very serious decision, and I assume my decision and the ones I do in the future, certainly I will do very seriously.”

But not everyone agrees Canada should go ahead with the Saudi arms deal.

WATCH: No government transparency with Saudi arms deal

4:54 No Government transparency with Saudi arms deal

Daniel Turp, a professor of international and constitutional law at the University of Montreal has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court against the federal government because he says, the arms deal violates Canadian guidelines on trade and human rights.

“The heart of the issue is not trading especially when it comes to military equipment with countries that breach human rights and Saudi Arabia has the worst record,”  Turp said adding, “it’s all about the rule of law in Canada there is a legislation, there’s guidelines adopted in 1986 that say you do not export military equipment to countries that breach human rights.”

Turp went on to say if the trade deal with Saudi Arabia was cancelled, “it could have economic consequences that’s unfortunate but it should never have happened in the first place, this contract.”

He expects the court case will eventually reach the Supreme Court.

Watch the full interviews with Ed Holder and Daniel Turp above.