The Canadian government is facing pressure to cancel its arms deal with Saudi Arabia from an unlikely source: a B.C.-based pizza chain.

"The contract valued at $14.8 billion I see as no less than what it is—BLOOD MONEY," Freshslice Pizza CEO Ray Russell said in a letter sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Wednesday.

"By any modern standard, Saudi Arabia is a human rights pariah. The country is among the 'worst of the worst' human rights offenders in the world."

The Gulf kingdom's human rights record has come under fire once again this month over its suspected involvement in the death of dissenting Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"Year after year, authoritative organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemn the consistent, systematic repression of the Saudi civilian population by the governing regime," Russell wrote. "The Saudi regime and its agents against have shown their blatant disregard for international law again with the brutal murder of Mr. Jamal Khashoggi."

Russell said he has been a Liberal supporter since first moving to Canada in 1987, but "can no longer support the Liberal Part of Canada or any political party that supports this sale."

He is calling on his customers to contact their MPs to demand an end to the arms deal and is threatening to put up posters in Freshslice locations "condemning any party that supports the brutal Saudi absolute monarchy."

According to Turkish officials, a 15-man hit squad that included at least one member of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's entourage tortured, executed and dismembered Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul earlier this month. His remains have yet to be found.

The Trudeau government has made clear its outrage over the killing, but the prime minister revealed this week the cost to Canada of cancelling the $15-billion contract in response would be "in the billions."

Trudeau blamed Stephen Harper's previous Conservative government for originally striking the deal in 2014 to sell light armoured vehicles known as LAV3s to the Saudi Arabian National Guard.

But documents obtained by The Canadian Press the following year revealed that the Conservatives had only approved minor-level export permits for the vehicles by the time the Liberals gained power.

Trudeau's then-foreign affairs minister Stephane Dion later signed off on the export of another $11 billion worth of LAV3s, after Canadian officials expressed confidence that Saudi Arabia would not use the vehicles against its own people.

The details of the contract emerged a time when Riyadh was already facing widespread international condemnation over the imprisonment of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, the mass execution of men charged with terrorism-related offences as well as human rights violations reported by the UN during the Saudi-led bombing campaign against Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.

Canada’s international trade rules include an export-control test which only allows weapons and other military equipment to be sold if "it can be demonstrated there is no reasonable risk that the goods might be used against the civilian population.”

Trudeau also said that the government is "actively reviewing existing export permits" for arms to Saudi Arabia. In the meantime, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland has said no new permits will be approved.

Ottawa temporarily suspended new exports to the desert kingdom last year while the federal government investigated reports that the Saudi regime had used Canadian-made LAV3s against the minority Shia Muslim population.

Given Saudi Arabia's human rights record, however, Russell is adamant there is simply no way for the arms deal to continue in good conscience.

"I must ask you to cancel this arms sale put human rights and humanity first," he wrote. "I love this country and am proud to raise my family here. But this blood money going to the government is not the Canada I know."

With files from The Canadian Press