WATCH ABOVE: As Britain remembers the victims of the Tunisia beach resort attack, it’s also considering a wider fight against ISIS terrorists. Stuart Greer reports.
An moment of silence for the British victims of last month’s resort attack in Tunisia was nothing more than an “empty, futile gesture” to help the U.K. government sell arms, in the eyes of comic-turned-political activist Russell Brand.
Brand criticized Friday’s tribute to the 29 British tourists who were gunned down June 26 on a beach at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel in Sousse. All told, 38 people were killed and 36 others were wounded in the attack.
READ MORE: Tunisia declares state of emergency after beach massacre
In a rant for his YouTube series The Trews (“Trew” News), he called the moment of silence “a minute of bull***t”, and blasted the British government for “perpetuating a cycle where its own needs are met” and allowing the U.K. to grow its weapons industry.
“The vast overwhelming majority of countries we’ve identified as potential threats, we sell weapons to. What does that say about our economic policy,” the 40-year-old said in the video posted Thursday, in advance of the moment of silence. “Of the 28 countries on our lists of potential human rights abusers and nations of concern, of those we sell arms to 23.”
READ MORE: Arms spending up globally, except in US, Western Europe
-
![]()
Canada’s restaurant industry on changes to the temporary foreign workers program -
![]()
How did RCMP’s allegations against India lead to diplomats being expelled? -
![]()
Canadian flag burning at Vancouver anti-Israel demonstration condemned -
![]()
‘Liberal logic on display’: Liberals, Conservative debate PBO’s updated report on price on carbon
“Inherently, when you talk about arms there’s always the folks who will be critical and who’ll say this is just the military industrial complex and that governments are simply in bed with their industry,” said security expert Christian Leuprecht. “And, there will always be people who will say the world is a dangerous place and we need to support the people who at least, somewhat, think like as and who are at least working to protect our interests.”
Get daily National news
The argument Brand presents isn’t as cut and dry as what he explains in nearly seven-minute video. It’s a bit too “simplistic,” Leuprecht said.
Brand accused British Prime Minister David Cameron of framing the threat of ISIS (and other extremist groups) to “advance his aims” — to sell arms. The U.K. is the fourth biggest arms supplier in the world in 2014, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, behind the U.S., Russia and France. Canada sits and number 15.
Leuprecht dismissed the notion that the political narrative of being under threat by groups such as ISIS is being perpetuated to sell arms.
“The West didn’t create ISIS and it certainly didn’t create ISIS… so that we could sell more arms to the region (the Middle East and North Africa),” Leuprecht said. “Everybody would be happier if there wasn’t an ISIS.”
READ MORE: Officials confirm Tunisia beach killer trained with Bardo museum gunmen
Brand isn’t off the mark when it comes to pointing out that countries — including Canada — sell arms to nations that don’t have the best track records when it comes to human rights and security.
Canada, for example, has exported weapons to Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and Saudi Arabia —one of its biggest arms buyers. A recent $15-billion arms deal with the Saudi government called into question the Canadian government’s commitment to human rights.
Saudi Arabia has an abysmal record on human rights, the rights of women and girls, punishes homosexuality with death (in some cases) and carries out beheadings of criminals.
READ MORE: Saudi King Abdullah: ‘Proponent of peace’? Human rights abuser? Both?
At the same time, the Canadian government uses those very examples as reasons why ISIS — which, it must be noted, has committed an extraordinary number of atrocities — must be eliminated.
Leuprecht explained selling arms to a country like Saudi Arabia is about the “deterrence” of threats to regional stability, such as by ISIS, rather than backing oppressive regimes.
But Ferry de Kerckhove, a former Canadian diplomat and a professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, said the feeling that there’s a need for heightened security is helping to boost arms sales and arms exporters such as the U.S, U.K. and Canada benefit from that.
READ MORE: Tunisia promises tough security measures after attack kills 38
He doesn’t entirely agree with Brand’s message, but said there is a “correlation” that exists between ISIS expanding or inspiring attacks, beyond the borders of Syria and Iraq, and governments wanting better weapons — and more of them.
“The overall atmosphere of insecurity… is of course playing into the hands of those who want to protect themselves,” he said. “It is clear that for a government, like ours, it is certainly an instrument to profit.”
Comments