Canadian Arms Show Canceled

Secure Canada 2008, an international arms and security tradeshow scheduled Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at Ottawa's Lansdowne Park, was canceled for not one, but two very different reasons.

According to the Secure Canada 2008 Web site, the show, a collocation of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Assn. Canada's TechNet North, The Assn. for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Intl. Canada Expo and Secure Canada and the World, was canceled because of a federal law that restricts speaking engagements by senior government officials during election campaigns. Canadian parliamentary elections are scheduled Oct. 14.

Secure Canada Exhibition Manager Rick Tachuk said the show also was canceled because of what he called an unrealistic level of police presence that would have been required.

“We had received a security threat assessment, ... which had indicated that there was a couple of different groups that were intending to protest at the show,” Tachuk said, “one of which was kind of well known ... and established (in Ottawa), the COAT group.” He added that he had been less concerned with COAT, the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, and more concerned with another group known for anarchist beliefs and violent acts.

Constable Alain Boucher of the Ottawa Police Department said the department informed show organizers of a possible threat from protestors and told them that more security than originally planned was needed. “We advised them of the resources that the police would need ... with the threat assessment we had done,” Boucher said. “We needed additional (security) resources, we felt.”

COAT is an umbrella group of international arms trade protestors that attempts to draw attention to the export of military equipment to countries that violate human rights or are engaged in war, according to Richard Sanders, the group's coordinator. He said COAT did plan to protest the tradeshow, but was skeptical that it was canceled as a result.

“We'd like to take credit for having closed it down, but it really was closed down because of this clamp-down that's affected conferences all across the country,” Sanders said. “We don't see this as a victory for our campaign, because we weren't responsible.” COAT had planned a candlelight vigil at the venue and an online petition drive.

Tim Page, president of the Canadian Assn. of Defence and Security Industries, which has a competing show, Cansec 2009, scheduled May 27-28, also at Lansdowne Park, said he, too, heard that the police required Secure Canada to have a larger security budget and that protests were a possibility.

“There was a protest group that was talking (about) their opposition to tradeshows of the defense and security nature, and they had mounted an e-mail campaign expressing their disagreement,” Page said, “but that hadn't really manifested itself into anything dramatic, at least as we understood.”

He added that, because he was not involved with Secure Canada, he was not aware of what other intelligence the police and show officials may have received, but he also said he believed part of the reason for the show's cancellation was the restriction on speeches by public servants during election campaigns.

According to the Secure Canada Web site, Gen. Walt Natynczyk, Canada's chief of the defense staff, was scheduled to give a keynote address. Other public servants scheduled to speak at conference sessions were Maj. Gen. Stuart Beare, chief of forces development; John Adams, associate deputy minister of national defense and chief of the Communications and Security Establishment; Peter Laneville, deputy chief, IT security with the CSE Canada; and retired Lt. Gen. Michel Maisonneuve, academic director for the Royal Military College Saint-Jean.

Tachuk said Secure Canada, which uses about 30,000 net square feet and draws 120 to 150 exhibitors and about 3,000 attendees, is looking at options and venues for rescheduling the show next fall.