While hundreds of people protesting the companies at CANSEC that sell weapons and technology that enable genocide, war crimes and repression encountered Ottawa Police Service officers with batons and truncheons, a cursory review of the countries that Canada sells “military goods and technology” to reveals substantial reason for concern on the basis of their publicly-documented human rights records.

What countries are at CANSEC?

The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), the organizer of the CANSEC arms show, highlights that “the Canadian defence and security industries are an essential service and a critical sector in Canada’s economy with $12.6 billion in “industry sales” and 52% of “total sales from exports”.

CADSI also boasts that its annual CANSEC event that takes place at the EY Centre in Ottawa attracts “50+ international delegations”.

While CADSI no longer makes public the names of the countries that send delegations to CANSEC, it posted in 2015 that there were 17 international delegations present the previous year, namely: Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Mexico, New Zealand, Oman, Peru, United States, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.

More recently, Israel, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Hungary and the Philippines have highlighted that they were present at CANSEC.

Global Affairs Canada report with added human rights screen

On May 31, the day after the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, Global Affairs Canada released its 2023 Exports of Military goods and technology report.

List of Human Rights Priority Countries

If one looks at the list on pages 22-24 of that report of the non-US countries that Canada exported these goods and technology to and compared it to the British government’s list of human rights priority countries, Canada exported to 6 countries on that list (Bangladesh, Colombia, Haiti, Iraq, Mali and Saudi Arabia).

Freedom House

Additionally, if one looks at the Washington, D.C.-based Freedom House list of “not free” countries, Canada exported military goods and technology to 13 of these countries (Algeria, Brunei, Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam).

Front Line Defenders

Furthermore, if one looks at the list of countries where Front Line Defenders documented the killing of human rights defenders (HRDs), Canada exported military goods and technology to 10 countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Thailand and Ukraine) where 232 HRDs were killed in 2023/24.

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

In 2023, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) “identified 630 attacks directly affecting an estimated 20,000 people. Over three quarters (78%) of these attacks were against people taking action to protect the climate, environmental and land rights.”

The BHRRC specifies: “The countries which saw the highest numbers of attacks on HRDs challenging corporate harm in 2023 were Brazil (68), India (59), Mexico (55), Honduras (44), the Philippines (36), USA (27), Iran (24), Colombia (22), Indonesia (18), Uganda (18), France (16) and the United Kingdom (15).”

The police were implicated in 233 of the attacks, while the armed forces were implicated in an additional 42 attacks.

Of the 12 countries with the highest number of attacks on HRDs, Canada exported to 9 of those countries (Brazil, Colombia, France, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Philippines, United Kingdom and United States).

Amnesty International

And if one looks at The State of the World’s Human Rights 2023/24 annual report produced by Amnesty International, one will find concerns about some of the countries that received some of the highest-dollar figure exports from Canada:

Saudi Arabia ($904 million): “The authorities targeted individuals for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression or association, and some were sentenced to lengthy prison terms or death following grossly unfair trials. Human rights defenders continued to be arbitrarily detained or subject to travel bans following their conditional release from prison.”

Qatar ($73 million): “The authorities continued to curtail the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including by arbitrarily detaining individuals for exercising their human rights.”

Israel ($30 million): “Israeli authorities maintained their system of apartheid, passing laws that deepened the segregation of Palestinians from Israelis, confined Palestinians to deprived locations, and implementing policies that furthered the systematic dispossession of Palestinians. Wanton destruction, home demolitions, denial of access to livelihoods, and state-backed settler violence, all intensified forced displacement.”

United Arab Emirates ($13 million): “Authorities continued to unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. …Even though 23 out of 26 prisoners of conscience detained solely for exercising their human rights had completed their prison sentences by the end of the year, the authorities kept them in prison under a law authorizing indefinite ‘counter-extremism counselling’.”

CANSEC 2025

The next CANSEC arms show is expected to take place in Ottawa on May 28-29, 2025.

Peace Brigades International-Canada continues to call for greater public disclosure of the countries that attend CANSEC and greater stringency with respect to the human rights violations committed by these countries.

We also call for Global Affairs Canada to amend its annual report on exports so that it engenders real accountability by specifying the “military goods and technology” exported (rather than simply broad categories) and to name the corporations that are selling these weapons, equipment and components.

Further reading: While France and Chile ban Israeli companies from arms shows, Canadian government supports CANSEC (June 2, 2024) and More than 800 human rights defenders killed in Palestine over the past six months (April 26, 2024).

Photo: Riot police responded to the protest at the CANSEC arms show on May 29 in Ottawa against the Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems and other companies profiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

While the Trudeau government provided unqualified support to the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa this past week, the Boric government in Chile and the Macron government in France have taken a different response to Israeli weapons companies participating in the major weapons shows in their countries.

While multiple Israeli weapons companies have been prohibited from taking part in FIDAE in Chile (April 9-14) and Eurosatory in France (June 17-21), Elbit Systems was welcomed at CANSEC in Canada (May 29-30).

Elbit Systems                                                                      

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Action Center for Corporate Accountability has noted: “Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems is one of the primary suppliers of weapons and surveillance systems to the Israeli military, including Skylark and Hermes military UAV drones, which form the majority of Israel’s fleet of large drones and have been used extensively in Gaza.”

The AFSC adds: “On April 1, a Hermes 450 drone attacked three vehicles of the humanitarian organization World Central Kitchen near Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. The attack resulted in the killing of seven aid workers who were managing food shipments. They were from Palestine, Australia, Poland, the U.K., and a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada.”

France

Reuters reports: “France has banned Israeli companies from participating in this year’s annual Eurosatory arms and defence industry exhibition in Villepinte near Paris, the event’s organisers and the French Defence Ministry said on Friday [May 31].”

Eurosatory is one of the largest arms exhibitions in the world.

The French  Defence Ministry told Reuters that: “Conditions are no longer met to host Israeli companies at the show at a time when the President is calling for Israel to cease operations in Rafah.”

Seventy-four Israeli firms were set to attend the event from June 17-21 at fairgrounds close to Paris’s main international airport.

Chile

This follows the decision of the Chilean government to prohibit Israeli companies from taking part in the International Air and Space Fair (FIDAE), Latin America’s biggest aerospace fair, on April 9-14.

BBC reports that FIDAE is “considered one of the most important security, defense and aeronautics exhibitions in Latin America.”

El Pais adds: “Local media have reported that it was President Boric himself who ordered the steps to exclude Israel from FIDAE, a fair that takes place at the II Air Brigade of the FACh, next to the international airport of the Chilean capital [of Santiago], where the specialized and general public attends.”

At a media conference on March 8, Boric stated: “What is happening in Gaza is unacceptable and it would not seem prudent or coherent to me that Israeli companies come to expose weapons to Chile under these conditions.”

It is believed that about 16 Israeli companies would have exhibited at FIDAE this year.

CANSEC, May 29-30 in Ottawa

In sharp contrast, several cabinet ministers, including Defence Minister Bill Blair, spoke at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa last week. Global Affairs Canada has also provided $450,352.00 in funding to CADSI, the organizers of CANSEC, over the past two years. Various government bodies, including the Trade Commissioner Service and the Canadian Commercial Corporation, participated in CANSEC this year.

DSEI, September 2025

In the coming months, the international community will be looking at the decisions made in this regard by the biennial Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms show that will take place in London, UK from September 9-12, 2025.

In August 2021, London Mayor Sadiq Khan told DSEI organizers to “reconsider” their event and not return to the city.

Khan said London is the “home to many people who have fled conflict and suffered as a consequence” of weapons “like those exhibited at DSEI” and that “for it to be used as a marketplace for those who wish to trade in weapons to some countries that contribute to human rights abuses goes completely against our values.”

We continue to follow this.

Photo: Protest against the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, May 29, 2024.

The 2023 Exports of Military goods and technology report released by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) on May 31 notes that Canada exported $30,641,495.83 in “military goods” to Israel through 348 “utilized permits”.

Of the twelve Export Control List (ECL) categories of “military goods and technology” sold to Israel, the top three were:

2-11      $13,059,723.35 (Electronic equipment, “spacecraft” and components, not specified elsewhere on the Munitions List)

2-4        $10,458,545.34 (Bombs, torpedoes, grenades, smoke canisters, rockets, mines, missiles…)

2-10      $4,368,437.83 (“Aircraft”, “lighter-than-air vehicles”, “unmanned aerial vehicles” (“UAVs”), aero-engines and “aircraft” equipment, related equipment, and components, specially designed or modified for military use.)

Crucial omissions

The Global Affairs Canada crucially does not mention the specific weapons or components that were exported to Israel (it only provides the above citied general categories) nor does it mention the specific corporations based in Canada that exported “military goods” to Israel in 2023.

Non-lethal items?

Page 13 of the Global Affairs Canada report further notes: “Throughout 2023, export permit applications for military goods and technology to Israel were reviewed on a case-by-case basis, including against the ATT [Arms Trade Treaty] criteria, which are enshrined in the EIPA [Export and Import Permits Act]. Following the terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent military operations by Israel in Gaza, the only permits issued were for non-lethal items. No permits have been issued since January 8, 2024, and all permits that remain open valid at the time of tabling of this report are for non-lethal items.”

On page 22 (then again on pages 26, 29, 36 and 50), the report repeats: “Following the terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023 and the subsequent military operations by Israel in Gaza, the only permits issued were for non-lethal items.”

Kelsey Gallagher of Project Ploughshares has commented: “Canada’s export controls make no distinction between lethal and non-lethal military goods and, indeed, do not define either term. …An examination of public statements by Canadian authorities and official export records suggests that the distinction between lethal and non-lethal military equipment is more accurately a distinction between full systems (e.g., tanks or combat aircraft) and parts and components (e.g., fire control computers or circuitry used in aircraft cockpits).”

$28.5 million in October-November

On February 10, 2024, Alex Cosh of The Maple reported: “The Trudeau government authorized at least $28.5 million of new permits for military exports to Israel during the first two months of the state’s brutal war on Gaza, data supplied to The Maple by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) shows.”

Arms Embargo Now

Peace Brigades International-Canada has signed this statement in support of an arms embargo that states in part:

“Canadian companies export weapons, components, and military technology to Israel, including via the United States. These military exports, whether directly or by way of intermediaries, put Canada at risk of complicity in Israel’s grave human rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank.

While the Minister of Foreign Affairs has verbally committed to pausing approvals of future arms export permits to Israel, Canada must go further. It must cancel existing export permits, close all export loopholes, and implement an Arms Embargo under Canada’s Special Economic Measures Act, which recognizes the necessity of a two-way prohibition.”

We continue to follow this.

Further reading: PBI calls for respect for international law, protection of human rights defenders and an immediate cease-fire in Gaza (February 28, 2024).

The People’s University UBC [University of British Columbia] has posted on Instagram: “The administration would rather bring paramilitary police to surveillance and intimidate students- putting Indigenous and marginalized students, faculty, staff, and community members at risk- rather than meeting our demands.”

Their post adds: “WE CALL ON THE PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA TO DISBAND CRU-BC AND WE CALL ON UBC TO GET COPS OFF OUR CAMPUS.”

The People’s University for Gaza at UBC is “a student-led movement for Palestinian liberation & ending UBC’s complicity in Israeli occupation and apartheid.”

UBC investments

The UBC Social Justice Centre has noted: “This May 2024, seven months into Israel’s genocidal bombardment of Gaza, UBC finally disclosed its 2023 endowment investments, thanks to pressure from students across UBC campuses.”

Among the 88 companies “complicit in Israeli apartheid” with investments totalling $113.8 million are “16 military companies directly profiting from and enabling the ongoing genocide of Palestinians (around $16 million).”

Those companies include BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Safran, RTX (formerly Raytheon) and Elbit Systems.

RCMP has spun protests as “pro-Hamas”

After the student encampment was set up in late-April, Matthew Ramsey, acting senior director for media relations at the University of British Columbia, told City News we “will liaise with RCMP on this matter.”

Back in February, Tyee reporter Amanda Follett Hosgood quoted RCMP senior media relations officer Staff Sgt. Kris Clark saying: “More recently, C-IRG has deployed to pro-Hamas demonstrations to support the police of jurisdiction with public safety and enforcement at these politically and emotionally charged events.”

Countering Clark, Follett Hosgood quotes Michael Bueckert of Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East (CPJME) saying: “The RCMP is making an outrageous, racist and inflammatory conflation by labelling pro-Palestinian demonstrations as ‘pro-Hamas’. This is classic anti-Palestinian racism.”

Rebranding C-IRG

This is also in the context of the C-IRG rebranding as Critical Response Unit in British Columbia (CRU-BC) and expanding its scope and mandate.

On April 5, 2024, CBC journalist Brett Forester reported: “Dogged for years by complaints, lawsuits, alleged civil and Indigenous rights violations and now an ongoing federal investigation, the RCMP’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) officially has a new name and mandate.”

Systemic investigation

On March 9, 2023, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) launched a systemic investigation into the C-IRG.

Just prior to that, the CBC had reported: “The RCMP’s federal watchdog agency is weighing its options after receiving nearly 500 formal complaints about a unit tasked with policing resistance to major resource extraction projects in British Columbia. More than 100 grievances accepted for investigation contain allegations of excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behaviour, racism, discrimination and charter violations by the force’s Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG).”

Now, 15 months after the launch of the systemic investigation, there is no word as to when their investigation will be concluded and released.

An abuse of process hearing is also about to resume this coming June 17-21 in Smithers focused on C-IRG actions on Wet’suwet’en territory. This follows the revelations about the C-IRG – including officers laughing about police brutality – that surfaced in the first hearings that took place in mid-January

We continue to follow this.

Photo by Brandi Morin: “RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] liaison officers were at the traditional camp set up by the Woodland Cree Nation at an Obsidian Energy oil & gas lease road earlier today [May 11].”

We have been following the social media posts and now this article in IndigiNews and Ricochet by journalist Brandi Morin.

Excerpt from Morin’s article:

“The Woodland Cree First Nation set up a new blockade earlier this month to prevent [Calgary-based] Obsidian Energy employees from accessing a drill site in Woodland Cree traditional territory near Peace River [in northern “Alberta”], after notifying the company last week that its expansion plan had been rejected by chief and council.

Approximately 100 Woodland Cree, surrounding First Nations members and even allied industry partners are occupying the blockade set up in the style of a traditional Cree camp along the Walrus industry road about 40 minutes east of Peace River, a key access route for Obsidian’s work operations.

Obsidian Energy obtained an injunction on May 6 against Woodland Cree First Nation and people occupying the blockade camp. The First Nation has denounced the company’s “intimidation tactics,” calling the company’s conduct “the worst we’ve ever seen.”

In the face of growing opposition, Obsidian CEO Steven Loukas flew into the area for scheduled talks with the Woodland Cree on Monday [May 13].

Shortly after 1 p.m., within an hour of talks breaking down, the Woodland Cree received an email indicating that the company intended to take legal action against the First Nation and ask the court to order the chief’s arrest.

That request was filed in court today [May 14]. The company is asking a judge to find the Woodland Cree First Nation and Chief Laboucan-Avirom in contempt of court for violating the injunction.

The company is also asking the court to issue an arrest warrant for Chief Laboucan-Avirom and other members of the nation, and hold them in jail until the blockade is removed.

RCMP officers have been present at the blockade but a liaison told IndigiNews and Ricochet that at this point they have no plans to enforce the injunction, instead preferring to facilitate “peaceful negotiations” between the two parties.

Obsidian are asking the court to order the RCMP to forego those efforts, enforce the injunction and start making arrests.”

To read the full article by Brandi Morin, go to Oil company asks judge to arrest and jail Cree chief leading ‘Alberta’ blockade (IndigiNews, May 14, 2024).

Tweet by Brandi Morin.