Investigative Journalism Foundation reports that Bell Textron wants to sell helicopters to the RCMP

Published by Brent Patterson on May 15, 2025May 15, 2025

Photo: Bell Helicopters for Public Safety, Firefighting and Police Operations.

Journalist Carly Penrose of the Investigative Journalism Foundation (IJF) reports: “The Mirabel, Que.-based company registered to lobby the federal government for contracts to sell rotary wing aircraft to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and to be part of the Department of National Defence’s (DND’s) plan to revitalize its helicopter fleet.”

That IJF article highlights: “The registration comes after the national police force chartered two Blackhawk helicopters for border monitoring for $5.3 million in January. …The RCMP’s contracts for the Blackhawk helicopters were recently extended until June 30 and the cost was amended to $11.7 million.”

Penrose notes: “[Bell Textron] has never secured a contract with the RCMP before.”

The helicopters currently being leased by the RCMP from an Ottawa-area company for “border security” are Black Hawk helicopters built by Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin (the world’s largest weapons manufacturer that builds the F-16 and F-35 warplanes and Hellfire missiles implicated in the genocide in Gaza).

Photo: Heavily armed RCMP officers onboard a Black Hawk helicopter near the Alberta-Montana border, January 29, 2025.

“The dignity of people is beyond any border”

Further reading: PBI-Canada to follow the human rights implications of RCMP Black Hawk helicopters deployed at US-Canada border (PBI-Canada, January 30, 2025).

RCMP helicopters vs. land defenders

The RCMP Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) has used helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and drones to surveil and arrest Indigenous land defenders.

As of February 2023, the RCMP have 35 aircraft, 9 helicopters and 26 fixed-wing aircraft. The helicopters were bought from Aerospatiale, Airbus and Eurocopter, while the fixed-wing aircraft were bought from Cessna, de Havilland, Pilatus and Quest. The RCMP has also flown a FLIR SkyRanger R60 unmanned aerial vehicle (drone) over Wet’suwet’en territory just prior to its February 2020 raid.

In December 2023, Amnesty International Canada highlighted: “Based in part on witness testimony of four violent, large-scale Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) raids on Wet’suwet’en territory, the report finds that Wet’suwet’en land defenders and their supporters were arbitrarily arrested for defending their land and exercising their Indigenous rights and their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.”

Further reading: RCMP use helicopters, airplanes and drones to surveil and arrest Wet’suwet’en land defenders (PBI-Canada, May 21, 2023).

Surveillance of national strike in Colombia

On November 20, 2019, Semana reported that the Bell 407 Halcón (Falcon) helicopter would be used by the National Police to monitor National Strike protests in Bogotá with high resolution cameras with facial recognition technology.

Webinfomil.com further reported that the National Police would “deploy its entire fleet of Bell 407 Halcón surveillance helicopters … in the main cities of the country, where the most important concentrations are expected to occur.”

In March 2020, Human Rights Watch noted: “Since November 21, 2019, a national strike has mobilized thousands of Colombians to the streets to protest issues ranging from tax reform proposals to the killing of human rights defenders. …Then-Attorney General Fabio Espitia told Human Rights Watch on January 22, 2020, that his office was investigating 72 cases of possible abuse by police officers during the protests.”

Further reading: Did the Colombian police use Canadian-made Bell 407 helicopters for surveillance of National Strike protests? (PBI-Canada, April 18, 2022).

Bell and the Philippines

On February 8, 2018, The Guardian reported: “This week it was revealed that … Canada has brokered the sale of 16 combat utility helicopters worth $185m to the Philippine air force. The sale of the Bell helicopters – designed by an American company but manufactured in Canada [at the Bell plant in Mirabel, Quebec] – was facilitated by the [Ottawa-based] Canadian Commercial Corporation, an umbrella organization that sells arms to other countries on behalf of the Canadian government.”

The public attention that resulted from the media coverage and the concerns about human rights violations in the Philippines scuttled this deal.

But on April 30, 2018, the National Post reported: “Just months after a contract to sell military helicopters to the Philippines was cancelled, a Canadian firm is hoping it can revive the controversial deal. … Bell says it is now back in discussions with the Philippines as a potential client for the same helicopters.”

The most recent Amnesty International report (April 2025) highlights that in 2024: “Concern grew as more activists were forcibly disappeared. The practice of ‘red-tagging’ human rights defenders, including young activists, persisted, and the government continued to use counterterrorism measures against humanitarian workers.”

Global Witness has also documented that 298 land and environmental defenders were killed in the Philippines between 2012 to 2023, including 17 in 2023.

Further reading: ICC arrest of Duterte raises questions about CANSEC and the export of “military goods” to the Philippines (PBI-Canada, March 12, 2025).

Shut Down CANSEC, May 28

Bell Textron is expected to be at the CANSEC arms fair that is being held at the EY Centre in Ottawa this coming May 28-29.

Further reading: PBI-Canada to observe the Shut Down CANSEC mobilization in Ottawa, May 28 (PBI-Canada, May 10, 2025).

We also draw your attention to this upcoming event in Toronto.

We continue to follow this.