- Canadian officials secretly fast-tracked hundreds of military shipments to Israel despite publicly claiming a pause, including more than 420,000 bullets and F-35 jet components.
- A watchdog report exposes systematic deception, revealing Canada used loopholes and pre-approved permits to maintain arms exports while misleading the public.
- Canadian firms supplied critical F-35 parts, enabling Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, including a July 2024 bombing that killed 90 Palestinians in a "safe zone."
- Military cargo was smuggled on passenger flights, with bullets and jet parts loaded onto commercial airlines like Air Canada and Lufthansa.
- Despite government denials, Israel remained Canada’s fourth-largest military customer in 2024, with $13.8 million in authorized transfers fueling what experts call genocide.
While Canadian officials publicly claimed to have "paused" weapons exports to Israel in early 2024, a damning new report reveals the Trudeau government secretly fast-tracked hundreds of military shipments — including more than 420,000 bullets and critical F-35 jet components — through loopholes and pre-approved permits.
The findings, compiled by a coalition of watchdog groups, expose a systematic deception by Ottawa to placate growing public outrage over its complicity in Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, all while maintaining unconditional support for the apartheid state.
Lies wrapped in bureaucracy
According to the 58-page report titled "Exposing Canadian Military Exports to Israel", commercial shipping data and Israeli tax records prove that at least 390 shipments from 21 Canadian manufacturers reached Israel between October 2023 and July 2025. These included 735 cartridge parts, navigation sensors for F-35 stealth jets, radar systems and GPS antennas — many destined for Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons firm, which human rights groups accuse of manufacturing tools for ethnic cleansing.
"Shipments of arms to Israel were allowed to proceed under hundreds of previously approved permits," the report states. "This communications ploy allowed Canadian companies to continue to profit from Israel’s genocide while the Federal government misled Canadians." The authors, including the Palestinian Youth Movement and World Beyond War, accuse Canada of violating both domestic and international law by fueling a war that has killed over 60,000 Palestinians, nearly half of them children.
The F-35 connection: Canada’s fingerprints on Gaza bombings
A key revelation centers on Canada’s role in supplying parts for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jets, which Israel has used to obliterate civilian "safe zones" like the July 2024 bombing of al-Mawasi that killed 90 Palestinians. The report identifies three Canadian firms — Stelia Aerospace, CMC Electronics, and Nexeya — as critical suppliers of components worth $2.1 million per jet.
"The F-35 cannot conduct air strikes without Canadian parts," the report emphasizes. Yara Shoufani of the Palestinian Youth Movement told Middle East Eye: "Elbit, as a weapons manufacturer, has really come to be seen across the world as synonymous with genocide. For the Canadian government to be allowing for these manufacturers based in Canada to be sending weapon components to Israel's largest weapon manufacturer is something that should really raise alarms."
How Canada smuggles weapons under passenger planes
The report details two primary export routes: direct shipments to Israel and indirect transfers through the U.S., exploiting a loophole that bypasses Canadian permitting requirements for war-torn regions. Shockingly, researchers identified 67 instances where military cargo such as bullets and jet parts was loaded onto passenger flights operated by Air Canada, Lufthansa, and even Etihad Airways.
"So here we're talking about major airlines like Lufthansa, Air France, Air Canada, Air Transat, where essentially components are being loaded onto planes that have passengers headed to holiday destinations," Shoufani noted, highlighting the grotesque normalization of arming a genocide. Meanwhile, Israeli import records reviewed by CBC News show entries as recent as June 2025 for 15,000 units of "parts and accessories of military weapons" from Canada, directly contradicting government claims.
Despite Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly’s September 2024 declaration that "We will not have any form of arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza, period," Global Affairs Canada admitted it only suspended 30 permits while allowing hundreds more to proceed. Government data confirms Israel remained Canada’s fourth-largest military customer in 2024, with $13.8 million in authorized transfers.
When pressed, a Global Affairs spokesperson refused to explain how Canada ensures weapons aren’t used in Gaza, citing "commercial confidentiality." Meanwhile, Quebec-based arms giant General Dynamics shipped cartridges labeled as "non-lethal training materials" to Israel just days after Joly’s pledge, according to CBC.
The report demands an immediate two-way arms embargo, the cancellation of all active permits, and an end to indirect U.S. transfers. As Rachel Small of World Beyond War starkly warned: "What this report reveals is not bureaucratic oversight; what this looks like is systematic deception. It makes Canada directly complicit in what scholars and organizations all agree is a genocide."
With 55% of Canadians now supporting an arms suspension, according to the National Council of Canadian Muslims, the country's government faces a reckoning. Will it continue lying to shield a rogue ally, or finally uphold international law? The bombs raining on Gaza, many bearing Canadian components, answer that question every day.
Sources for this article include:
Please contact us for more information.
