Global Affairs Canada has released its 2025 Annual Report on Strategic Goods and Technologies Pursuant to Section 27 of the Export and Import Permits Act. These reports have been issued since 1990 and up to 2024 were more simply titled “Exports of Military goods and technology”.
The report indicates: “For the 2025 calendar year, the value of Canadian exports of controlled military goods and technology to non-U.S. destinations amounted to approximately $2.045 billion, compared to a value of $2.504 billion in 2024 and $2.143 billion in 2023.”
The United States
While the report does not specify the amount exported to the United States, the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) has stated: “Canadian defence exports to the U.S. account for 32% of all annual sales within our industry, valued at over $4.5 billion.” That could be interpreted as $1.44 billion of exports to the U.S., a figure in line with previous estimates by Project Ploughshares.
In March 2026, Project Ploughshares reported that the value of contracts concluded between the Canadian Commercial Corporation and the U.S. Depart of War in fiscal year 2025 totalled $2.07 billion.
As such, an approximate calculation the value of Canadian military exports to both US and non-US destinations could total closer to $4 billion a year.
Stated commitment to human rights
This year’s report asserts: “A key priority of Canada’s foreign policy is the maintenance of international peace and security. To this end, Global Affairs Canada strives to ensure that, among other policy goals, such as supporting Canadian foreign and defence policies and legitimate trade, Canadian goods and technology are not used in a manner that is prejudicial to human rights, peace, security or stability.”
An independent evaluation of that claim and more specifically what it means is an important measure in upholding human rights.
Saudi Arabia
For instance, the report notes: “Saudi Arabia was the largest non-U.S. export destination by value, receiving approximately $404 million in Canadian military exports (accounting for approximately 19.8% of the total value of non-U.S. military exports)…”
In 2014, the Government of Canada signed a $14.8 billion deal with the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia (KSA) to deliver over 14 years an undisclosed number of light-armoured vehicles (LAVs) to be manufactured by General Dynamics Mission Systems Canada, based in London, Ontario. The deal was arranged by the Ottawa-based Canadian Commercial Corporation, a Crown corporation that brokers contracts between Canadian suppliers and foreign governments.
Following a public outcry, Global Affairs Canada conducted a risk assessment that in September 2019 concluded: “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.”
In August 2021, Amnesty International and Project Ploughshares countered with the 50-page report: “NO CREDIBLE EVIDENCE” CANADA’S FLAWED ANALYSIS OF ARMS EXPORTS TO SAUDI ARABIA.
Israel
This year’s report on “Strategic Goods and Technologies” states: “Since January 8, 2024, the Government of Canada has not approved any new arms export permits to Israel that could be used in the conflict in Gaza, and this remains the approach. At the same time, the government also suspended export permits for parts destined for Israel that could be incorporated into items used in Gaza. All of the permits suspended in 2024 have expired and cannot be used to export to Israel.”
But the report also notes that the “value of military exports” to Israel in 2025 amounted to $14,671,705.14.
This $14.6 million in 2025 is in addition to $18,906,035.86 in 2024, $30,641,495.83 in 2023, $21,329,783.93 in 2022, and $26,092,288.99 in 2021 for a total of over $100 million in the past five years.
Türkiye
The report also notes that the seventh largest amount of military exports in 2025 went to Türkiye totalling $60,760,039.44.
In its annual Freedom in the World report, Freedom House gave Türkiye a score of 32/100 and listed the country as “not free”.
Furthermore, Amnesty International has documented that in Türkiye in 2025: “Baseless investigations, prosecutions and convictions of human rights defenders, journalists, opposition politicians and others intensified. …The rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association were arbitrarily restricted. Law enforcement officials used less lethal weapons against peaceful protesters, causing numerous injuries. …Victims of human rights violations, including alleged torture and other ill-treatment by state officials, continued to face a culture of impunity.”
It is unclear how Global Affairs Canada officials reconcile this with their stated commitment to ensure: “Canadian goods and technology are not used in a manner that is prejudicial to human rights, peace, security or stability.”
Peru
The Global Affairs Canada report also notes the “value of military goods” exported to Peru in 2025 totalled $1,998,607.10.
While $2 million is a relatively smaller number compared to exports to the United States, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Türkiye, this does not diminish concerns about the impact these exports could have on human rights defenders and communities.
In their 2025 report on Peru, Amnesty International documented: “Authorities used unnecessary and disproportionate force against demonstrators. The victims of excessive force during the 2022-2023 protests had still not obtained justice. Attacks on journalists and human rights defenders intensified.”
Monitoring the impact for human rights defenders
The primary mission of Peace Brigades International is the protection of human life, specifically through the accompaniment of individuals, human rights defenders, whose lives have been threatened because of their activism.
Given the Government of Canada’s stated commitment this past February 2026 to “increase our defence exports by 50%”, which could mean an additional $1 billion to $2 billion in exports, increased monitoring is required to ensure stated commitments to “human rights, peace, security and stability.”
The Philippines
The Government of Canada has not disclosed how it will increase these exports by 50% or to what countries, but there is reason for concern that exports could increase to the Philippines following the Canadian government tabling a Notice of Intent in November 2025 to enter into free trade negotiations with the Philippines and the signing of a “Status of Visiting Forces Agreement” that same month to further deepen “security cooperation” with the Philippines.
Canada’s defence minister David McGuinty has stated: “Peace is built on rules, not recklessness. …The Philippines has shown true leadership in upholding international law … and for that [it has] Canada’s greatest and deepest respect.”
Between 2012 and 2024, the Philippines was the third deadliest country for land and environmental defenders, according to data from Global Witness. They note that 306 defenders were killed in the Philippines during this period.
Global Witness has further noted about the situation in the Philippines: “The military has been linked to the highest number of killings and detentions of land and environmental defenders in the last decade.”
We continue to follow this and evaluate the available information.
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PBI-Canada is also following the relationship between the security of human rights defenders and military exports in the context of the annual CANSEC “defence, security & emerging technology event” that is expected to take place again in May 2027 at the Cohere Centre in Ottawa.
