Questions and concerns about the pending export of Canadian-made armoured vehicles to the Israel Police
Video still of Roshel at CANSEC 2024 on May 29-30, 2024: “Shimonov said the company has a contract with the government of Israel to provide Senator transport vehicles.” – Toronto Star, March 16, 2024.
On March 14, 2024, CBC reported that shortly after October 7, 2023, the Israeli government sent a request to Global Affairs Canada for clearance to import about thirty armoured patrol vehicles from Brampton, Ontario-based Roshel.
At that time, Roshel said in an emailed statement: “It is our understanding that these vehicles are not to be used for military purposes, but solely for domestic police operations. This has been communicated to the government of Canada.”
Then on March 16, 2024, the Toronto Star reported: “[Roshel] says its shipments destined for police use in Israel, not military use in Gaza, have been delayed without explanation by the federal government. …It’s not clear if the company’s plan to supply Israeli police with bulletproof security vehicles is specifically caught by the Trudeau government’s decision to pause exports to Israel of military goods and technology.”
By March 20, 2024, The Maple, referencing the article by CBC News cited above, reported: “In response to a message from The Maple, Roshel CEO Roman Shimonov said the buyer of the vehicles was not Israel’s ministry of defence, but did not say which branch of the Israeli government planned to buy the goods.”
Months later, on August 7, 2024, PressProgress reported: “In a statement to PressProgress, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said there are no open permits for ‘exports of lethal goods to Israel.’ They did not confirm whether or not armoured vehicles are included within the scope of that term.”
What has happened since then?
The “Our Customers” section of the Roshel website currently lists Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) among others.
On December 13, 2024, Roshel announced it had opened its first U.S.-based production facility in Shelby Township, Michigan. The company stated: “By establishing this state-of-the-art plant, Roshel is well-positioned to meet the growing demand from U.S. defense and law enforcement agencies, who now constitute the majority of our orders.”
On December 16, 2024, Roshel CEO Shimonov told the Financial Post: “Definitely, [the new production facility outside Detroit] is related to [U.S. president Donald] Trump’s administration and also definitely to potential changes in the way tariffs are working. As of today, we are getting most of our orders from the U.S. government.”
On March 10, 2025, the Markham, Ontario-based Canadian Defence Review, “Canada’s leading defence magazine”, announced that it had named Roshel CEO Shimonov “Canada’s Defence Executive of the Year for 2025”.
That article leads with: “Prior to moving to Canada in 2012, Roman Shimonov had worked in the defence and security sector in Israel. His family immigrated there from the Soviet Union when Shimonov was 12 years old. ‘I served in the Israeli Ground Forces and started my career over there,’ said Shimonov.”
Shimonov further comments: “Our expansion into the United States is not over, plus we are expanding into Europe. We are increasing our product lines and the verticals that we’re acting in. And we are waiting for numerous major contract awards that we are extremely optimistic about this year.”
Human rights concerns
Palestine
Roshel has stated its armoured vehicles would be used for “domestic police operations”, which would include occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
On March 11, 2025, CNN reported: “Mahmoud Muna looked on in disbelief as plain-clothes Israeli police officers rifled the shelves in his decades-old bookstore in occupied East Jerusalem. …Witnesses to the raid said police were looking for any book containing the word ‘Palestine,’ a Palestinian flag, its colors, or any symbol of Palestinian national or political identity.”
The Guardian article on the police raid adds: “The confiscated books included titles on the work of British artist Banksy, and others by the Israeli historian Ilan Pappé and the US academic Noam Chomsky.”
On March 25, 2025, ABC News reported that after “an attack by settlers on local Palestinian families… Palestinian Academy Award-winning filmmaker Hamdan Ballal … the co-director of ‘No Other Land’ was detained by the Israel Police… Israel Police confirmed to ABC News in a statement that Ballal was arrested and taken to Kiryat Arba police station. The force said Ballal was under investigation.”
The New York Times adds: “Despite a handful of high-profile prosecutions, a vast majority of police investigations into attacks by Israelis on Palestinians are closed without charges, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group.”
In July 2024, BBC reported: “The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel should stop settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and end its ‘illegal’ occupation of those areas and the Gaza Strip as soon as possible.”
The Amnesty International 2023/24 report documented: “In the West Bank, Israeli policing operations were the most lethal since 2005, with 110 Palestinian children among those killed. Detentions of Palestinians without charge or trial reached record levels. …Throughout the year, Jenin refugee camp in the north endured Israeli law enforcement operations that killed at least 23 Palestinians between January and July. …[Israel Police have also] imposed bans on anti-war protests in Palestinian communities.”
Israel
On March 20, 2025, the Jerusalem Post reported: “Large protests for the hostages and against the firing of Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Director Ronen Bar in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv this week were marked by extensive use of police force, including officers punching and kicking protesters and violent dispersals of groups.”
That article adds: “Footage from a Tuesday night protest calling to end the Israel-Hamas War showed multiple instances of police punching and kicking protesters as they attempted to disperse them.”
The United States
While Roshel lists the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection as customers, it has not been documented how Roshel armoured vehicles could be used by these agencies.
On March 1, 2025, The Washington Post reported: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered about 3,000 active-duty troops to the southern U.S. border, including soldiers from a motorized brigade equipped with 20-ton armored Stryker combat vehicles, defense officials familiar with the effort said.”
That article adds: “Several thousand U.S. troops are already involved, primarily assisting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the detection and apprehension of migrants seeking to enter the United States illegally.”
While Stryker combat vehicles are made by General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS), it signals a context of concern on how other armoured vehicles could be used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Roshel sponsors CANSEC, May 28-29
Roshel is listed by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) as a sponsor of CANSEC 2025.
Peace Brigades International-Canada is examining the relationship between CANSEC, the arms industry and their impact on the safety and security of human rights defenders, including land and environmental defenders.
Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, all companies, including those that produce “military goods”, must assess and address human rights risks and abuses arising in all aspects of their business, including how clients such as national armies and police forces use their weaponry and related services.
Additionally, the legal concepts of “corporate complicity” in and the “aiding and abetting” of international crimes could in the future apply to arms companies that continue supplying weapons in the knowledge that they may be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law.
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