Photo: Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Following the killings of two human rights defenders – legal observer Renee Good and neighbourhood protector Alex Pretti – by federal agents in Minneapolis in January 2026, questions are emerging about the role that a Canadian company plays in the equipping of Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) operations.
HRDs killed by federal agents
Renee Good was shot to death by an ICE agent on January 7, 2026.
The BBC has reported: “Several state leaders have said that Good was at the scene of an ICE raid in the south of Minneapolis as a legal observer – a volunteer who monitors police and security forces at protests and operations. Their aim is to help maintain calm, deter misconduct and ensure legal rights are respected.”
Alex Pretti was killed by a U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) officer on January 24, 2026.
On the day Pretti was killed, Minnesota State Senator Omar Fateh told a Democracy Now! correspondent: “This morning, Alex was outside with all our neighbours, serving as a neighbourhood protector recording ICE when ICE comes into the community. We’ve had neighbourhood response groups come together, prepare, organize each other. …What we saw on camera was Alex peacefully observing. He had a camera on his hand. He was tackled, he was pummeled, and he was executed.”
Minnesota State Representative Aisha Gomez stated on an MSN interview: “How many deaths in the street, extrajudicial executions of US citizens engaging in constitutionally protected speech and activities is enough?”
US civil society speaks out
Amnesty International USA has called “on Congress to reject any additional funding for ICE and to immediately take steps to hold ICE accountable for the deaths and other human rights violations it has caused, and to end these deadly enforcement practices.” They further note: “Not one more life should be lost. Not one more dime should be spent enabling this horror.”
Ida Sawyer, crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch, has also commented: “Nationwide patterns of abuse by ICE and Border Patrol reveal a dangerous and expanding security force operating with impunity.”
Human Rights Watch further notes: “International human rights law stipulates that law enforcement officers should only intentionally use lethal force as a last resort, when strictly unavoidable to protect life. International human rights standards also require a prompt, effective, thorough, independent, impartial, and transparent investigation of a potentially unlawful death.”
And on January 27, 1,025 organizations signed a joint letter to the US Congress to express their “horror, outrage and deep grief about the news that federal agents have executed a human being in broad daylight on the streets of Minneapolis.”
The organizations that signed this letter include the American Friends Service Committee, Amazon Watch, Amnesty International USA, Grassroots International, Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice, Oil Change International, Public Citizen, Stand.earth, and the Washington Office on Latin America.
ICE armoured vehicles made by Ontario company
On December 2, 2025, the Canadian Press reported: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement earmarked millions of dollars for a bulk order for 20 armoured vehicles from Canadian defence manufacturer Roshel… The justification for the sole-source order was published in a partially redacted document on a U.S. federal procurement website on Nov. 26, and the site says a contract was awarded on Nov. 28.”
The Canadian Press subsequently reported that ICE has stated that the purchase falls under Buy American provisions given “production of the Roshel Senator emergency response vehicle originates in the United States.”
While Roshel is a Canadian company based in Brampton, Ontario, it opened a plant in Shelby Township, Michigan in December 2024. Ontario Premier Doug Ford had previously stated that he thought that it was “fantastic” that ICE had ordered armoured vehicles from a company based in Brampton. Global News reports Ford saying: “I’ve been through that plant. …We’ll take orders anywhere in the world.”
If the contract was awarded to Roshel by the Department of Homeland Security on November 28, 2025.
It was just a few days later, on December 1, 2025, that the DHS announced Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. Then on January 6, 2026, the DHS announced this operation would send as many as 2,000 agents to the area.
If the contract was awarded to Roshel by the Department of Homeland Security on November 28, 2025, and the order was to be completed within 30 days, that would put the delivery date around December 26-27, 2025.
Canadian civil society speaks out
After the shooting death of Alex Pretti, several Canadian organizations highlighted the use of Roshel armoured vehicles by federal agents in Minneapolis.
Instagram post by World Beyond War Canada.
Instagram post by CODEPINK Ontario.
Instagram post by Greenpeace Canada.
Instagram post by the Palestinian Youth Movement.
The Democracy Now! report on the killing of Rene Good on January 7 also included a clip from a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) video that shows what appears to be a Roshel armoured vehicle at an “enforcement operation” in Minneapolis the day before Good was shot to death in her car.
The role of the Canadian government
Ontario Premier Ford now says: “I don’t direct companies to sell military vehicles down south or around the world… We don’t have anything to do with what crosses the border… If you want to talk to the federal government that controls the borders, that controls trade…”
In early December 2025, before the killing of Good and Pretti, the Canadian Press reported: “Kelsey Gallagher from Project Ploughshares, a non-governmental organization that promotes peace, says if the vehicles were sold to any other security service in the world with the same documented pattern of abuse, Ottawa likely would step in to stop it.”
Trade minister Maninder Sidhu visited the Roshel plant in Brampton just days before the contract between Roshel and ICE was signed. He is the Member of Parliament for Brampton East.
This week, Insauga reported: “Global Affairs Canada declined to comment on the sale, and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has previously said the federal government was not ‘contacted regarding any permits for this transaction’.”
On January 27, the Toronto Star reported: “In Ottawa, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Wednesday there’s ‘not a restriction’ for Canadian companies selling such vehicles to the U.S.”
On January 28, the Canadian Press reported: “Asked what he makes of criticism of Canadian companies providing vehicles and other infrastructure to ICE, Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Tuesday [January 27] that he would ‘let the respective Canadian companies answer that question’. ‘Overall, we have certain laws that restrict the ability of Canadian companies to trade with the entities or countries. In the particular case of the United States, that’s not a restriction’, Anandasangaree said. ‘In respect to who they’re selling items to, I would let Canadian company leaders answer that.’”
Photo: Canadian International Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu visited the Roshel manufacturing facility in Brampton, Ontario on November 23, 2025 (five days before Roshel signed the contract with ICE).
“Substantial risk”
In recent years, the Canadian government appears to have suggested that while a country may have a problematic overall human rights record, there needs to be direct proof of Canadian military goods being used in those human rights violations.
In November 2019, CBC News reported: “Global Affairs Canada says it has found no credible evidence linking Canadian exports of military equipment to human rights violations by the government of Saudi Arabia… While the document acknowledges that Saudi Arabia’s overall human rights record remains problematic, it says ‘officials found no credible evidence linking Canadian exports of military equipment or other controlled items to any human rights or humanitarian law violations committed by the Saudi government’. …The document says the department believes there is ‘no substantial risk’ that current Canadian exports of military equipment will result in any human rights violations within Saudi Arabia.”
The CANSEC arms show
The United States has sent delegations in past years to CANSEC in Ottawa.
Last year, under the Trump Administration, the United States Embassy in Ottawa posted on Instagram: “Deputy Chief of Mission Marybeth Turner led the U.S. delegation to #CANSEC, Canada’s top defense, security, and emerging technology event.”
Two years prior, under the Biden Administration, the U.S. delegation included U.S. Ambassador to Canada David L. Cohen as well as the Minister Counselor, Commercial Affairs; Defense Ataché & Sr. Defense Official; Head – Office of Defense Cooperation; Deputy Senior Commercial Officer; Commercial Specialist – Defense; and Commercial Specialist – Security.
It is possible that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could also participate in some way.
We cannot confirm this because the organizer of CANSEC, the Ottawa-based Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), does not make publicly available the list of the 60+ international delegations that attend CANSEC.
However, CADSI does highlight though that “CANSEC welcomes more than 15,000+ registrants from all over the world, including military leaders and government officials.”
And while CADSI does not make its List of Exhibitors publicly available, they do note on their website that Roshel is a sponsor of CANSEC.
We continue to follow this.
Instagram post from Shut.Down.CANSEC:
.jpg){kind=link}