Judicial review could implicate Canada acting unlawfully by selling parts for F-35s violating international law
Photo: Rally outside London court as judicial review begins.
The Guardian newspaper reports that a judicial review took place last week (Tuesday May 13 to Friday May 16, 2025) over allegations that the British government “acted unlawfully” by “continuing to sell F-35 parts and components to a global pool, even though some of those components might be used by Israel in Gaza.”
Sacha Deshmukh, chief executive of Amnesty International UK, told a rally outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London: “There’s such clear evidence of the use of weapons parts from the UK being used in war crimes, including in genocide. Until this case reaches its judgment, right now as we speak, there are significant human rights violations being delivered by British-made weapons and bombs.”
Lawyer Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, representing the Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq, then described in the courtroom the impact of Israeli F-35 airstrikes on Gaza as “catastrophic and continuing”.
The Guardian reports: “F-35s, [Andrews-Briscoe] said, played a critical role, for instance on 18 March, when Israel broke the ceasefire with a wave of airstrikes that killed more than 400, according to the health ministry in Gaza. The dead included 183 children and 94 women, Palestinian officials said.”
Oxfam UK also says it provided to the court “detailed information on the widespread destruction of Water, Sanitation and Health (WASH) infrastructure, evidence of attacks on humanitarian aid workers, and restrictions on vital humanitarian aid delivery.”
Clemence Lagourdat, Oxfam’s humanitarian coordinator in Gaza, notes: “For the court case, we’ve submitted evidence showing that Israeli air strikes have destroyed over 70 percent of Gaza’s water infrastructure.”
The United Nations recognizes water and sanitation as human rights.
Canadian components and the call for an arms embargo
The Canadian government also continues to allow components and parts built for the F-35 to be exported to the US and presumably into the same global pool.
While the keynote speaker for the Day 1 Opening Breakfast (starting at 7:50 am) has not yet been announced, it is expected to be a Canadian cabinet minister, most likely Defence Minister David McGuinty, Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound, or Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand. The new Associate Minister of Defence, Jill McKnight, is also likely to be at CANSEC. Many organizations and individuals continue to demand that they implement an arms embargo now that would stop this transfer of F-35 parts.
Photo: Then-Defence Minister Anand at CANSEC 2023.
UK companies and the F-35 supply chain
The Guardian further notes: “Britain supplies 15% of the value of the F-35 jet, including ejector seats, rear fuselage, active interceptor systems, targeting lasers and weapon release cables, mainly through BAE Systems.”
Declassified UK has also reported that “over 100 UK-based companies contributing to the supply chain” of the F-35.
110 Canadian companies supply parts for the F-35
The Globe and Mail has previously reported: “Since the late 1990s, at least 110 Canadian-based suppliers have been awarded contracts valued in excess of $38 billion for the F-35 program, Project Ploughshares said [in its new report Fanning the Flames: The grave risk of Canada’s arms exports to Israel].”
That article by Steven Chase adds: “[The Project Ploughshares report] pointed to a 2018 study commissioned by Lockheed Martin that said there are US$2.3-million worth of Canadian components in every F-35 jet.”
That Globe and Mail article also notes: “All across Canada, there are factories and companies that are part of the F-35 supply chain, building elements of the aircraft that have so far been sold to other countries.”
Some of the companies that build parts for the F-35, including Gastops, Magellan Aerospace and Stelia Aerospace, are expected at the CANSEC arms show at the EY Centre in Ottawa this coming May 28-29, 2025.
Image from Breach Media.
F-35 parts made in Canada owned by the Pentagon
Now, CTV News also reports: “From bolts to jet engines, countries that fly the F-35 technically share a pool of spare parts that are managed by contractors but remain Pentagon property until the moment they are installed on another country’s aircraft.”
The Pentagon is the pentagon-shaped building in Virginia that is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense.
The article adds: “The first four [F-35] warplanes [purchased by the Canadian government] are expected to be delivered in 2026 along with spare parts at RCAF bases in Cold Lake, Alta. and Bagotville, Que.”
It also notes: “The spare parts issue made headlines in Denmark after the U.S. transferred F-35 components from a Danish base to Israel, which also uses the aircraft. Facing criticism over Israel’s reported use of F-35s in the Gaza War, Denmark’s government has said it has no way to stop such shipments.”
Similarly, Declassified UK reports: “The US Department of Defense (DoD) holds legal ownership over all spare parts in the F-35 supply chain, including those originating in Britain. According to a report published by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in May 2023, ‘the F-35 program’s executive steering board issued a memorandum [in 2012] declaring the F-35 assets be titled to the U.S. government when they are not installed on an aircraft’.”
That article also notes that even when “Britain’s Labour government suspended direct exports of F-35 parts to Tel Aviv in September [2024] … it created a loophole that allows spare parts to still reach Israel if they go via another country such as the US.”
F-35 program “incompatible with international law”
The Government of Canada has stated: “Canada has been a partner in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program since 1997. Because of this, companies in Canada have been, and continue to be, eligible to bid on the work packages associated with the project.”
In the context of the judicial review in the UK, Elizabeth Rghebi, an advocacy director at Amnesty International USA, has commented that the claims by states that the program itself makes it impossible to stop exporting parts “would make the entire programme incompatible with international law”.
Photo: Canada is part of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Program.
F-35 new capabilities tested on Palestine
Texas-based Lockheed Martin is the primary company behind the F-35.
On May 13, 2025, The Jerusalem Post reported: “During the Israel-Hamas War, the IAF [Israeli Air Force] Flight Test Center (FTC), in cooperation with Lockheed Martin and the US Pentagon’s F-35 program, developed a new capability to carry external JDAM [Joint Direct Attack Munition] on the aircraft’s wings. ‘The Israeli Adir (F-35I) aircraft is the only one in the world to have carried out operational strikes with an external armament configuration, which increased the attack capabilities,’ the IAF said in March 2025, adding that ‘increasing the Adir’s array is a significant boost to the air force’s lethal capabilities.'”
Verso Books has noted: “Israel’s military industrial complex uses the occupied, Palestinian territories as a testing ground for weaponry and surveillance technology that they then export around the world to despots and democracies.”
Photo: Protest against Lockheed Martin at CANSEC.
Judicial review decision
The Guardian highlights that: “Much of the [judicial review on the UK continuing to export parts for the F-35 warplane] will turn on the extent to which international law places obligations in domestic law.”
It adds: “The hearing before Lord Justice Males and Mrs Justice Steyn is due to conclude on Friday [May 16], and a decision is expected in writing at a later date.”
Shut Down CANSEC, May 28
For more information about the protest against the CANSEC arms show, you can visit the @shut.down.cansec page on Instagram.
Further reading: Front Line Defenders documents the killing of 31 Palestinian human rights defenders, many by Israeli airstrikes and PBI-Canada to observe the Shut Down CANSEC mobilization in Ottawa, May 28.
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