What is the price that a society must bear for the death of one person? Thought exercise with a real world situation....

via Channels TV.com

Canada is looking into ways to cancel a giant 2014 weapons deal with Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sunday, as criticism mounts over the kingdom’s role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the Riyadh-led war in Yemen.

Trudeau had earlier said that it would be “extremely difficult” to withdraw from the contract, signed by the previous conservative administration, “without Canadians paying exorbitant penalties.”

But as evidence emerged of direct Saudi involvement in Khashoggi’s murder on October 2, Canada in late November announced sanctions against 17 Saudi nationals linked to the killing.

“The murder of a journalist is absolutely unacceptable and that’s why Canada from the very beginning had been demanding answers and solutions on that,” Trudeau said Sunday in an interview with CTV.

“We inherited actually a (Can)$15 billion contract signed by (former prime minister) Stephen Harper to export light-armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia,” he said.

“We are engaged with the export permits to try and see if there is a way of no longer exporting these vehicles to Saudi Arabia,” he added.

The penalty for breaking the contract could exceed Can$1 billion, Trudeau said in an interview with CBC Radio in October.

Trudeau has been criticized by political opponents and Human Rights activists for failing to cancel the contract.

The historic Canadian arms deal

London, Ontario-based manufacturer General Dynamic Land Systems Canada inked the deal in 2014 to supply 928 LAV 6 armoured personnel carriers to Saudi Arabia.

The deal, worth US$11.5 billion, was the largest arms deal in Canadian history.

But the contract was scaled back earlier this year, amid protests, to 742, dropping heavy assault versions equipped with cannons that activists and opposition politicians warned could be used against civilians and to help Riyadh wage war in Yemen.

Khashoggi, a US resident who wrote for The Washington Post and had been a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, killed and dismembered, according to Turkish officials.

After lengthy denials, Saudi authorities admitted responsibility for the murder and said 21 people had been taken into custody. However, a CIA analysis leaked to the US media went further, pointing the finger at the crown prince, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler.

In October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country would suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the murder.

Relations between Canada and the Saudi kingdom have been in crisis in recent months.

Riyadh expelled Ottawa’s ambassador and severed all trade and investment ties in August to protest Canada’s rigorous demands that jailed human rights activists be released.

Ok.

Here's the question. 

We all know that murder is distasteful, morally wrong and when conducted on behalf of the state all the bad multiples.

But is the life of one man worth the livelihoods of all the workers that are connected with this deal?

Don't get it twisted!

I already lined out what we all know.  Murder is wrong.  But is canceling this arms deal the right way to punish Saudi Arabia?

Some will attempt to go all "spiritual" and state that a message must be sent.  But is sending a message going to keep General Dynamic Land Systems Canada workers warm this winter?  Will it keep food on their table when this huge, possibly life changing contract goes away?

Does the moral RIGHT of sending Saudi Arabia a message over Khashoggi worth the moral WRONG of having your own citizens lose their jobs? 

Yep.  One of you is trying to link this to other outrageous acts committed thru out history.  Don't do it.  Stay on topic.  Stay in the here and now and deal with current societies thinking on the subject.

So what do you guys think.

Side note.  You can bet Trudeau is simply inside his personal echo chamber at parties listening to those of a particular stripe.  I wonder what the workers in the towns affected would say.