Arrest of Palestinian solidarity activists in Ottawa raises concerns about repression of protests against weapons companies
The Ottawa Citizen reports: “Ottawa police have arrested four pro-Palestinian protesters for allegedly blocking a downtown street during a demonstration on [the evening of Monday November 18].”
The article quotes Sarah Abdul-Karim, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, who said: “We didn’t do anything different from what we do in the usual protest. But the response from police was different. From the second we showed up at the human rights monument there were massive amounts of police. They refused to let us take the streets to march, although we were too many people to fit on the sidewalk.”
The article also notes that the four arrested “appeared in court Tuesday afternoon. They each face charges of mischief, obstructing a peace officer, and participating in an unlawful assembly.” It also quotes Crown attorney Moiz Karimjee who alleged their actions the previous evening “exceeded the bounds of lawful protest.”
PBI-Canada observed the protest on Monday November 18 and was present at the courthouse on Tuesday November 19.
Weapons companies in Ottawa
The CTV news article on this also quotes the Palestinian Youth Movement Ottawa and Labour for Palestine Ottawa who stated: “What we saw yesterday [November 18] leads us to believe that the Ottawa Police Service is more concerned with protecting weapons companies and those who facilitate the sale of arms, than keeping our community safe as we exercise our right to participate in peaceful assembly per the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We are continuing to support those arrested and will not take this disproportionate reaction by the police to a peaceful walk as an indication that we should stop protesting a genocide.”
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has documented the following on these corporations with offices in downtown Ottawa:
Leonardo Canada (55 Metcalfe Street): “Italy’s largest weapons manufacturer, Leonardo makes the Oto Melara 76/62 Super Rapid 76mm naval guns installed on the Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar warships. Israel’s newest warship, the Sa’ar 6, was used operationally for the first time on Oct. 16, 2023, firing at targets in Gaza using Leonardo’s gun.”
Lockheed Martin (45 O’Connor Street, Suite 870): “The world’s largest weapons manufacturer, Lockheed Martin supplies Israel with F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has been using extensively to bomb Gaza. Israel also uses the company’s C-130 Hercules transport planes to support the ground invasion of Gaza.”
L3Harris (255 Albert Street, Suite 804): “The world’s ninth largest weapons manufacturer, L3Harris manufactures components that are integrated into multiple weapons systems used by the Israeli military in Gaza, including Boeing’s JDAM kits, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 warplane, Northrop Grumman’s Sa’ar 5 warships, ThyssenKrupp’s Sa’ar 6 warships, and Israel’s Merkava battle tanks.”
RTX-Raytheon Canada Ltd. (360 Albert Street): “The world’s second largest weapons manufacturer and largest producer of guided missiles, RTX supplies the Israeli Air Force with guided air-to-surface missiles for its F-16 fighter jets… RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney manufactures engines for F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.”
BAE Systems (220 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 1200): “The world’s seventh largest weapons manufacturer, U.K. company BAE Systems manufactures the M109 howitzer, a 155mm mobile artillery system that the Israeli military has been using extensively, firing tens of thousands of 155mm shells into the Gaza Strip. Some of these shells are white phosphorus bombs, the use of which is forbidden in densely populated civilian areas and potentially amounts to a war crime.”
On September 18, 2024, PBI-Canada and the Canadian Friends Service of Canada (Quakers) held a webinar featuring World Beyond War, Project Ploughshares and the American Friends Service Committee commenting on international obligations, Canadian arms exports to Israel and the call for an arms embargo.
Legal obligations re: weapons exports
Toronto-based university law school professors Heidi Matthews, Faisal A. Bhabha and Mohammad Fadel have argued: “Because the [International Court of Justice] found a serious risk of genocide in Gaza, continuing to export arms to Israel would be illegal. It would also be flagrantly inconsistent with Canada’s obligation to prevent genocide and could expose Canada and Canadian officials to liability for participation in genocide.”
Provincial “hate crime working group”
It remains unclear what informed the Ottawa police action on November 18.
Earlier this year, The Breach reported: “A secretive committee within the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General has given ‘politically-motivated’ backing to the Toronto police’s targeting of pro-Palestine activism… Known as the Hate Crime Working Group and formed in 2019, it is composed of nearly two dozen Crown prosecutors, some of whose public comments show pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias.”
And in the days leading up to the protest this week, Ottawa-area Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and former Ontario provincial government cabinet minister Lisa MacLeod described Palestinian solidarity activists as “the pro Hamas mob”. On the day of the arrests of those walking to the weapons companies, MacLeod retweeted: “Several arrests of Pro-Hamas rally Marshalls taking place in Ottawa, the place where the least amount of action has taken place over 13 months. Better late than never, right?”
“Excessive use of force” in Vancouver
We also note that on September 18, 2024, this media release highlighted: “Lawyers with Pivot Legal Society and the BC [British Columbia] Civil Liberties Association have filed three complaints against the Vancouver Police Department’s [VPD] excessive use of force, targeting, and surveillance of Palestine protests.”
The complaints include the deployment by the VPD of “military grade pepper spray” at a protest on May 31, 2024, and the “illegal use of Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (drones) and unauthorized filming by VPD officers.”
Palestinian human rights defenders
Mary Lawlor, the United Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders has written: “There exist no moral arguments that can justify the continued sale of weapons to Israel by states that respect the principle of the universality of human rights.”
Lawlor adds: “Palestinian human rights defenders have emphasized to me the importance of a ban being placed on such sales, given that Israel has demonstrated time and again that it will use such weapons indiscriminately against Palestinians.”
Peace Brigades International called for a ceasefire in November 2023 and in March 2024 asked the international community to suspend the supply of arms to Israel.
We continue to follow this including by drawing attention to the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa (this coming May 28-29, 2025) and the DSEI arms show in London, UK (this coming September 9-12, 2025) and the export of “military goods” used to commit human rights violations and repress organizations, defenders and communities.
The protest planned for this Saturday.
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