Arms Embargo Now notes

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You can find notes for the Arms Embargo Now Report below.

 

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Exposing Canadian Military Exports to Israel

 

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Exposing Canadian Military Exports to Israel

 

 

Full text of notes:

 

Exposing Canadian Military Exports to Israel

Notes

 

A team of researchers used two lines of evidence to track Canadian arms shipments to Israel between October 2023 and July 2025:

  1. Commercial shipping data
  2. Israeli Tax Authority import data

The research revealed:

  1. Arms transfers between Canada and Israel take place via three channels:
    1. Direct commercial exports from Canadian companies to Israel
    2. Indirect exports through transfers via the U.S.
    3. Canadian imports of Israeli technology and hardware (weapons used against Palestinians are marketed to Canada as “battle-tested)
  2. 47 shipments from Canadian arms companies to Israel between October 2023 and July 2025 – these had detailed shipping records
    1. 421,070 bullets exported to Israel (April 2025 shipment of 175,000 bullets)
    2. 3 shipments of mortar or artillery cartridges
    3. not an exhaustive list of arms shipments, just “a glimpse”
    4. 45 via air, 2 via train and maritime shipping
    5. Required over 100 flights, 60 of which were commercial passenger flights
    6. Air Canada was one of the carriers
    7. Originated from 21 different Canadian companies (p. 30-53)
    8. 38% went to Israeli military contractor Elbit Systems
  3. 391 additional shipments (Israeli tax authority) including:
    1. Bullets
    2. Military equipment
    3. Weapons
    4. Parts
    5. Aircraft components
    6. Communication devices
  4. Shipments of arms to Israel came from seven Canadian cities:
    1. Montreal
    2. Halifax
    3. Ottawa
    4. Vancouver
    5. Calgary
    6. GTA
    7. Waterloo
  5. Shipments used Canadian roads, railways, ports, and airports

Direct Canadian Arms Shipments to Israel

  • Global Affairs Canada (GAC) regulates all weapons exports
  • Each shipment requires export permits issued under the Export and Import Permit Act (EIPA), responsibility of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
  • Export permits are for a specific country, a given amount and a given duration (2 to 5 years).

Government Deception About Israeli Arms Sales

  • GAC claims to have stopped issuing new export permits for arms sales to Israel as of January 8, 2024. In August of 2024, announced suspension of about 30 export permits.
  • However, hundreds of shipments were allowed to continue under previously approved export permits.
  • Allowed government to mislead Canadians that arms sales had stopped.
  • In fact, a record number of export permits were approved to Israel just before committing to stop the issuing of permits.

Misuse of Diplomatic Cargo Labels

  • Many shipments of “diplomatic mail” from October 2023 to July 2025.
  • 2017 International Peace Information Service report showed how from 2011 to 2014, the company Interglobal Forwarding Services facilitated 16,883 tons of “diplomatic cargo” to Israel via Maersk ships. The “diplomatic cargo” label protects the anonymity of companies shipping arms to Israel.
  • The diplomatic cargo classification could be being used now as well.

Types of Shipments

Advanced systems

  • CMC Electronics, Calian GNSS and Rheinmetall Canada provide navigation sensors, battlefield management systems, satellite technology and electronic warfare components

 

F-35 Fighter Plane Components

  • Canadian corporations provide components to the F-35 fighter plane:
    • Nexeya (provide modular product testers to Elbit)
    • CMC Electronics (provide Doppler Velocity Sensors for the F-35)
    • Stelia Aerospace (provide fuselage panels for F-35s)
  • 2018 study by Lockheed Martin – each F-35 contains U.S. $2.3 million worth of Canadian parts
  • F-35s have been used extensively in Israel’s genocide in Gaza
    • In the 6 months following October 2023, Israel’s F-35s flight hours increased 565%
    • July 13, 2024 – Israeli F-35 jets dropped three 2,000 lb bombs on the “safe zone” of Al-Masawi in Khan Younis, killed 90 and wounded 300. Destroyed tents, food stations, water desalination plant.
  • Canada is part of the Joint Strike Fighter partnership, enabling over 100 companies located in Canada to secure F-35 contracts.
  • The EIPA requires Canada to deny export permits if there is “substantial risk” that the tech could be used to violate International Humanitarian Law.

GAC report on military exports in 2024:

  • $18.9 million in exports to Israel under 164 permits, despite government in January 2024 halting new permits.
    • $2.2 million in munitions
    • $12.5 million in electronic equipment
    • $2.8 million in military aircraft and aircraft equipment
  • Shipments to Israel between October 2023 and January 2024 exceeded the total value of arms shipments for any previous entire year
  • Since October 2023, Canada has exported the following to Israel:
    • Over 10 million bullets, worth $475,389
    • $79 million worth of surveillance and strategic technology
    • $9 million worth of aircraft parts

A Pattern of Government Lies

When pressed, Canadian officials have consistently attempted to pacify outrage by denying and downplaying the fact that Canadian-made military goods have never stopped flowing to Israel.

  • January 2024 – Trudeau says that Canada has not issued any military export permits to Israel since October 2023.
  • GAC data revealed that $30 million in export permits for military tech had been authorized since October 2023.
  • Government then tried to say that the exports were “non-lethal”, but this was not true, the electronic components could all be used for military purposes.
  • This was also untrue (April 2025 shipment of 175,000 bullets)
  • March 18, 2024 – nonbinding motion passed in Parliament that Canada would “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel”. Melanie Jolie said they would pause approval of any further export permits to Israel. However, they never stopped the transfers of already approved permits.
  • September 2024 – Melanie Jolie confronted by reporting that the US was planning on selling $83 million of mortar cartridges to Israel, built by General Dynamics in Quebec. Jolie said that this would not happen and that the US loophole would not be a defense. However, a shipment of cartridges from General Dynamics occurred 9 days after Jolie’s statement.
  • March 2025 – GAC says that “Canada has not approved any new arms export permits to Israel since January 2024”. However, an FOI request by the Maple showed that the government approved two new arms export permits to Israel in February 2025, totalling $37.2 million.

 

Canada Violates International Law

 

  • Canada is a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)
    • Prohibits transfer of arms if there is a substantial risk that they will be used to violate IHL
    • Embodied in the Canadian EIPA
    • Says goods cannot be used in “serious acts of violence against women and children”
    • ATT and EIPA are required to halt transfers of goods that facilitate violations of IHL
  • Canada is a signatory to the Genocide Convention
  • January 2024 ICJ ruling finds “plausible evidence of genocide” by Israel in Gaza
  • Canada legally obligated to take all necessary actions to prevent the crime of genocide in Gaza

 

“The ICJ and the UN Commission of Inquiry report on implementation of the ICJ decision have also subsequently “reminded States of their international obligations to avoid transferring arms that might be used to violate international conventions” and to “conduct a due diligence review of all transfer and trade agreements with Israel, including but not limited to equipment, weapons, munitions, parts, components, dual use items and technology, to determine whether the goods or technology subject to the transfer or trade contribute to maintaining the unlawful occupation or are used to commit violations of international law.”

 

  • In February 2024, UN experts released a statement warning that “any transfer of weapons or ammunition to Israel that would be used in Gaza is likely to violate international humanitarian law,”

 

Conclusions

 

“Therefore, in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza and in accordance with its own laws and international obligations, Canada must cut off the flow of military goods both to and from Israel by immediately imposing a comprehensive two-way arms embargo. This can be

accomplished by taking the following steps:

 

  1. The Minister of Foreign Affairs must use Canada’s Special Economic Measures Act

(SEMA), our unilateral sanction legislation, to urgently impose a comprehensive two-way

arms embargo on Israel.

 

  1. The Minister of Foreign Affairs must cancel all export permits for transfers of arms,

parts, and components to Israel and end all direct shipments immediately.

 

  1. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, through EIPA, must end indirect transfers of arms to

Israel through the United States by banning Canadian arms from being sent as military

aid to Israel or being sold by the US to Israel. This must be done by updating EIPA to:

 

  1. The Minister of Defence and the Defence Procurement Secretary of State must cancel

all contracts and planned purchases of military goods from Israel.

 

  1. The Minister of Government Transformation, Public Works and Procurement must

update Canada’s Procurement Code of Conduct and all associated materials to include

measures that prevent the purchase of arms from companies involved in Israel’s illegal

occupation, apartheid system, and genocide in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

All the world's peoples have the right to pursue their own destiny.