The Maple reports the Canadian Commercial Corporation signs deal for shipment of artillery propellants despite Israeli human rights abuses

Published by Brent Patterson on June 3, 2025June 3, 2025

Photo: The Maple reports: “The propellants in question are used to fire 155mm artillery shells, a caliber of munition that Israel has used heavily in its attacks on Gaza.” The propellant appears to have been promoted at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, May 28-29, 2025.

The Maple reports: “A federal government agency that assists Canadian arms exporters prepared a report last year documenting 99 cases of alleged Israeli crimes, but later considered any risks associated with a shipment of artillery components that included goods destined for Israel to be ‘appropriately mitigated’.”

The article by news editor Alex Cosh continues: “The Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), a Crown corporation that helps Canadian manufacturers secure military contracts with foreign states, did not disclose how it came to that conclusion, which has left arms control advocates baffled and shocked.”

Photo: The Canadian Commercial Corporation at CANSEC 2025. “The CCC is listed as an affiliate of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries, whose annual CANSEC event in Ottawa this week was picketed by anti-war protesters demanding a full two-way arms embargo on Israel.”

Cosh explains: “The U.S. Department of Defence named the CCC last September as the signatory of the deal to supply Israel with up to $78.8 million of artillery propellants. CCC signed the deal on behalf of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems – Canada in Valleyfield, Quebec (GD-OTS), the sole source supplier of the product.”

Photo: The display reads: “Large Caliber Ammunition PROPELLING CHARGES For 155mm Artillery Projectiles M231/M232A1 Modular Artillery Charge System (MACS).”

Cosh highlights: “New documents obtained by The Maple through an access to information request reveal that months before Project Ploughshares brought details about the deal to light, CCC was closely examining Israel’s human rights abuses, including those allegedly committed with 155mm artillery shells, and noting reports about the United States diverting shipments of that type of munition from their originally intended destinations to Israel.”

Human rights defenders

The Maple adds: “In December 2024, CCC’s human rights committee prepared a report concerning ‘indirect transfers’ of Canadian-made military goods to foreign states. …While the vast majority of the report obtained by The Maple was redacted by CCC, almost all of the document’s footnotes remain visible. …The citations included … sources documenting … [Israel’s] killing of … medics, aid workers, journalists…”

The Dublin-based organization Front Line Defenders (the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders) has documented the killing of 31 Palestinian human rights defenders in 2023 and 2024.

They state: “Those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”

The American Friends Service Committee has also previously noted: “The U.S. is planning to send ‘tens of thousands of 155mm artillery shells that had been destined for Ukraine’ to Israel. Their use by Israel, according to Oxfam, is ‘virtually assured to be indiscriminate, unlawful, and devastating to civilians in Gaza.’ On Nov. 13 [2023], more than 30 organizations issued a letter opposing the transfer.”

Along with General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems and the Canadian Commercial Corporation, the International Defense Cooperation Directorate of the Israeli Ministry of Defense (SIBAT) has attended CANSEC.

Tweet from the then-Israeli ambassador to Canada.

We continue to follow this.

To read the full article: Government Export Agency Noted 99 Israeli Crimes, But OK’d Arms Sale (Alex Cosh, The Maple, May 29, 2025).

Additional reading: General Dynamics displays artillery shell implicated in controversial deal, Ottawa Police arrest 13 at protest against CANSEC arms show (Brent Patterson, PBI-Canada, May 29, 2025).