The Canadian government misled the public when it said it was pausing all new weapons export permits to Israel last year, a new report published on Tuesday says.
Commercially available data has shown shipments not only continued but were actually fast-tracked - and sometimes via indirect routes such as through the US.
The findings, compiled by an all-volunteer team from the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and the groups World Beyond War and Arms Embargo Now, point to efforts by Ottawa to placate an electorate that has expressed growing dissatisfaction with how the Liberal Party has responded to Israel's war on Gaza - but without actually reversing its policy of unconditional support for Israel, as it publicly pledged.
"Shipments of arms to Israel were allowed to proceed under hundreds of previously approved permits. This communications ploy allowed Canadian companies to continue to profit from Israel’s genocide while the Federal government misled Canadians into believing they were no longer arming the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza," the authors wrote in the report.
The 58-page document entitled "Exposing Canadian Military Exports to Israel" cites more than 390 shipments from 21 Canadian manufacturers in six cities that included more than 420,000 bullets, 735 cartridge parts (ammunition sets for firearms), F-35 jet parts such as navigation sensors, radar systems, and dual-use items like GPS antennas.
