By turning a blind eye to how Canadian-made munitions move through the United States and into Israel’s war in Gaza, Ottawa is exposing a deep crack in its own values and in its laws.
This week’s revelation that more than $60 million in Canadian-produced mortar cartridges will be part of a new $20 billion U.S. weapons sale to Israel should outrage anyone who believes in the rule of law. It isn’t just a question of politics or trade. It’s a matter of Canada knowingly allowing its defence industry to feed a conflict rife with allegations of war crimes.
Under the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which Canada joined in 2019, no signatory is supposed to export arms if there is a “plausible risk” they could be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law. Ottawa affirmed at the time that joining the treaty would not undermine its long-standing Defence Production Sharing Agreement with Washington. That bilateral pact lets most military items flow across the border without permits or public reporting.
And there’s the loophole.
Because the Quebec-made munitions are first sold to the United States Canada’s largest defence customer they will be exempt from Canada’s normal export controls. No Canadian permit, no public record, no accountability. The only reason we even know these shells are headed for Israel is because U.S. officials disclosed it.
Canadian officials insist they’ve halted new permits for direct exports to Israel. But that pledge is meaningless if Canadian companies can keep selling weapons to the U.S., knowing full well where those arms may end up. Human rights groups have been warning about this shell game for years. Now their concerns are playing out in real time, while civilians in Gaza pay the price.
The Trudeau government cannot hide behind Washington’s decisions. Canada’s legal obligations and its moral responsibilities don’t stop at the 49th parallel. Pretending that U.S. end-users bear all the risk is a convenient fiction. If Canadian-made weapons help flatten neighborhoods in Gaza, the blood is on Ottawa’s hands too.
The path forward is clear. Canada must close the U.S. loophole: require permits and transparent reporting for all military exports to the United States, and suspend any transfer that might be diverted to conflict zones where international law is being shredded. Anything less makes a mockery of Canada’s stated commitment to human rights and the international rules-based order.
Silence and paperwork tricks won’t wash away complicity. If Canada truly believes in the laws it signed onto and in the values it claims to champion it’s time to act like it.
