Nothing like a huge bazaar. Who doesn’t love wandering through a crowded food market, or scouting out old vinyl or antiques in a packed convention hall, bursting with merchants and awesome deals.

How about an arms convention, merchants of death at every turn, hawking surface-to-air missiles, armored personnel carriers, speed boats bristling with guns, and killer drones of all sizes — for deadly prices?

That’s what the Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition & Conference, or DIMDEX, offered up, earlier this month in the Qatari capital. DIMDEX describes itself as “a dynamic platform attended by key decision makers and industry leaders,” showcasing “state-of-the-art technologies and products,” “significant deals and partnerships.”

Merchants of death is what Dimitri Lascaris calls them. Lascaris – a Canadian lawyer, activist and journalist – is an intrepid follower of the arms industry. He attended DIMDEX, smart phone on a selfie-stick, videoing the scene, with colour commentary.

The GPM reached Dimitri somewhere in the Middle East. Listen to our conversation in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.

And go on Dimitri’s tour of the DIMDEX 24 here:

Imagine this scenario: A G20 summit is taking place near Quebec City. Protesters will be there. Among these, anti-capitalists vowing to disrupt the summit, exploiting the presence of international media to further their radical cause.

Wise to their aims, the Canadian Air Force launches an unmanned surveillance drone. Severe storms are on the horizon. The drone flies to the summit, through restricted airspace, under military and Air Traffic Control.

Loitering over the noisy protesters, the drone confirms there are no threats, but beams back lots of photos to National Defense controllers.

Here’s another scenario: The same drone takes off from a runway west of Kandahar, in Afghanistan. A High-Payoff Target has been spotted beside a road where an alliance convoy will soon be traveling, so the drone is armed with an AGM114 Hellfire Missile and a pair of 250-lb. GBU 48 laser-guided bombs.

Arriving at the scene, the drone spots three “fighting-aged males.” Zooming in, operators back in Canada spot disturbed earth nearby. Circling for a closer look, they spy a wire coming from a patch of disturbed earth, near the three, clearly suspicious suspects. One of them appears to be holding a radio or cell phone. Now it’s clear. He and is friends are clearly combatants, legal agencies and controllers conclude, authorizing the use of force and the immediate liquidation of the three men.

These two imaginary scenarios were contained in a Request for Proposals issued by the Canadian Department of National Defense back in 2016. Canada is in the market for a fleet of drones that can perform these tasks for real. Two weapons firms put in offers. Quebec-based L3-Harris produces Israeli-style Heron drones. The American one markets Predator 2.0. Since then, L3-Harris has reportedly pulled out of the competition.

The GPM spoke about Canada’s future drone fleet with Matt Korda. Korda is a Canadian researcher at the Federation of American Scientists, in Washington D.C. Listen to our conversation in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.

Thanks to Dan Weisenberger for his fabulous guitar instrumentals.