Foreign Affairs investigating reported use of Canada-made LAVs in Saudi Arabia crackdown

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says she's deeply concerned about recent videos that appear to show Canadian-made armoured vehicles being used by Saudi Arabia in a crackdown against its own citizens.

Freeland says she's instructed her officials to urgently investigate the matter and determine whether the vehicles in the videos were in fact armoured personnel carriers made by Terradyne Armoured Vehicles of Newmarket, Ontario.

Armoured vehicles have appeared in news and social media posts from Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, where the Saudi government is trying to stamp out unrest among the region's minority Shia population.

Freeland is not saying what action might be taken if the vehicles are proven to be Canadian-made, other than to say the government will respond accordingly.

Almost from the moment Justin Trudeau's Liberals took office, his government has been under fire for allowing arms exports to Saudi Arabia, which is widely denounced as one of the world's worst abusers of human rights.