Photo: The group “Stop General Dynamics” organized a protest at the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield facility on May 30, 2026.
The Rover, a Quebec-based reader-funded investigative journalism project, reports that the General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS) facility in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, just south of Montreal, produces M31A2 propellant used in heavy artillery systems, particularly 155mm shells.
That propellant, a type of explosive fuel used to launch artillery shells, is exported to the United States through contracts administered by the Ottawa-based Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC).
Now, General Dynamics has plans to increase production of the M31A2 artillery propellant by expanding its facility near Montreal with $390 million in funding from the United States Department of War.
Earlier this year, the Government of Canada also awarded almost $1.1 billion in “contribution agreements” to GD-OTS including $355.7 million to construct a nitrocellulose facility in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. Nitrocellulose is the primary chemical foundation used for the propellant charges that fire 155mm artillery shells.
The Maple has also reported that the $682 million expansion that would add 12 new buildings will allow GD-OTS to expand its production of M31A2 propellant from 6 million pounds per year to 16 million pounds per year.
Construction on the facility will reportedly be finished in 2028.
BAPE: “Potential violations of international humanitarian law”
On June 29, 2026, the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) issued its report on the planned expansion. The BAPE commission of inquiry urged “the Government of Quebec—as it develops its defense sector—to consider the risks of potential violations of international humanitarian law and to ensure that an appropriate forum exists for addressing public concerns.”
Ploughshares: “155mm artillery shells – the primary driver of civilian harm”
In March 2025, the Waterloo, Ontario-based Project Ploughshares documented: “Throughout Operation Swords of Iron [the Israeli military assault in Gaza that began in October 2023], Israel has relied heavily on 155mm shells, most supplied by the US government.”
Upon impact, 155mm shells expel 2,000 sharp metal fragments in every direction, risking injury, death, and permanent disability to civilians within 300 meters of the blast.
Ploughshares adds: “Throughout this operation, Israel has repeatedly faced credible allegations of violating international humanitarian law (IHL). Humanitarian and human rights monitors have identified the use of explosive weapons in populated areas (EWIPA) – largely airstrikes and ground-launched munitions such as 155mm artillery shells – as the primary driver of civilian harm events.”
The export of artillery propellants
The Maple has reported: “In September 2024, the U.S. Department of War listed Israel as a destination for up to $55.1 million USD worth of M31A2 produced by GD-OTS.”
The March 2025 Project Ploughshares report further notes: “This agreement [to supply the United States with artillery propellants for Israel] was signed after Canada announced that it was suspending arms exports to Israel, which authorities stated would explicitly include weapons transfers through the United States.”
And by July 2026, the Ottawa-based Export Development Canada (EDC), Canada’s export credit agency, indicated that “propellant powders” (which would include the M31A2 propellant), are among “Canada’s strongest export opportunities” and that “existing capabilities have the potential to capture growing global defence markets”.
155mm shells fired from BAE/Elbit howitzers
The Arms Sales Accountability Project says “the M109 is a U.S. designed self-propelled howitzer that fires 155mm artillery rounds”.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) further notes: “The world’s seventh largest weapons manufacturer, U.K. company BAE Systems manufactures the M109 howitzer, a 155mm mobile artillery system that the Israeli military has been using extensively, firing tens of thousands of shells into the Gaza Strip.”
The AFSC adds: “They are slated to gradually be replaced by the 155mm Ro’em/Sigma, ‘the world’s first fully automatic howitzer’, made in Israel by Elbit Systems.” In June 2024, Janes Information Services reported: “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on 3 June that the first of its new Roem self-propelled howitzers (SPHs) recently entered service and had been fired for the first time.”
Photo: The Israeli military fires a howitzer at Gaza, May 2021.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS), BAE Systems and Elbit Systems were present at the annual CANSEC arms show at the Cohere Centre in Ottawa this past May 27-28, 2026.
The Ottawa-based Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) promotes CANSEC as “Canada’s largest defence, security & emerging tech tradeshow where $1B+ in business deals happen every year”.
The General Dynamics news release for CANSEC in 2026 highlighted: “GDOTS Canada is advancing Canada’s 155mm artillery capabilities through a series of major industrial initiatives at its Quebec facilities. These efforts include establishing domestic production of critical materials like nitrocellulose, alongside new capabilities to load, assemble, and pack (LAP) modular artillery charges used in 155mm systems.”
Photo: A banner with the names of some of the more than 21,000 Palestinian children killed since October 2023 is draped across the main parking lot entrance to the CANSEC arms show with Ottawa Police Service riot police in the background.
In May 2025, GD-OTS posted photos on social media in which their “Large Caliber Ammunition Propelling Charges For 155mm Artillery Projectiles” display is visible. That display noted: “M231/M232A1 Modular Artillery Charge System (MACS).”
Photo: General Dynamics display at CANSEC 2025.
Peace Brigades International-Canada monitors the export of Canadian “military goods” and their impacts on the safety and security of human rights defenders within a context of upholding international law and international human rights norms.
The Government of Canada definition of human rights defenders includes journalists, land rights and environmental human rights defenders, Indigenous human rights defenders, workers, activists, students and others who “act to promote or protect human rights through peaceful means”.
In March 2024, Mary Lawlor, then the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights defenders, wrote in The Guardian: “Palestinian human rights defenders have emphasized to me the importance of a ban being placed on [the sales of weapons to Israel], given that Israel has demonstrated time and again that it will use such weapons indiscriminately against Palestinians.”
The Dublin-based organization Front Line Defenders (the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders) has documented that at least 9 Palestinian human rights defenders were killed in 2023, that 22 more were killed in 2024, and another 43 Palestine HRDs were killed in 2025.
The Qatar News Agency reports that as of today 74,475 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 with another 175,517 Palestinians injured.
We continue to follow this.
Poster: Shut Down CANSEC was at the “Evening of Convergence and Mobilization Against Militarism” in Montreal, September 26, 2026.
