Written by: Yves Engler

The government’s response to a Montréal firm supplying 50,000 explosives to the Israeli military highlights the need for opponents of Israel's holocaust to challenge Canada’s military alliances.

Last week, it was reported that a Montreal facility of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems will provide 50,000 mortars and fuzes to the Israeli military. The $83 million contract was announced by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency. After refusing to respond to journalists’ questions on the matter for five days, Global Affairs Canada released a statement saying they “will not speculate on a possible Foreign Military Sale by the United States.” But the US announcement said, “the principal contractor” is “located in Quebec, Canada”.

In March, the House of Commons voted for a (non-binding) resolution calling for an arms embargo on Israel. The government has repeatedly said they would abide by the vote and that no new permits for arms sales to Israel have been okayed since January 8. Days before the mortars contract was announced Defence Minister Bill Blair repeated that claim to activists. The Maple reported that $100 million in export permits submitted prior to January 8 remain outstanding.

But the government is now openly declaring that the vote in Parliament to halt arms sales doesn’t include most of Canada’s arms sales to Israel, which transit through the US. Most of Canada's international arms shipments go to the US, while the government doesn’t tabulate sales under a longstanding military accord. The 1956 Defence Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA) effectively made Canada part of the US defence industrial base. The arrangement granted Canadian companies unique access to bid on US military contracts, the world’s most lucrative arms market. It offers them access to advanced military technology and facilitated participation in US firms’ global value chains.

The DPSA appealed to the Pentagon because Canadian firms were relatively sophisticated suppliers. But there was also a political element to the DPSA. The Pentagon wanted to tie Canadian firms to the US military industrial complex in the hope that would spur them to advocate a pro-US military policy. A 1958 US national security document described the importance of maintaining a “healthy” “Canadian defense industry” for the US to “receive the same excellent cooperation in the joint defense effort that has prevailed in the past.”

If the government says a Montreal company can export arms to Israel because Washington contracted them, then Palestine solidarity activists should be calling for the DPSA to be abrogated. And not just the DPSA.

Through the Five Eyes (US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) international intelligence sharing arrangement Ottawa assists Israel. The 3,500 strong Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canada’s main component of the Five Eyes, has long gathered intelligence on Palestinians for Israel. In his 1994 book Spyworld: How C.S.E. Spies on Canadians and the World retired CSE agent Mike Fros notes, “[former Palestinian Liberation Organization chairman] Yasser Arafat’s name, for instance, was on every [CSE] key word list. NSA was happy about that.” According to files released by Edward Snowden, CSE spied on Israel’s enemies and shared the intelligence with that country’s SIGINT National Unit. “Palestinians” was a “specific intelligence topic” of the US NSA, British GCHQ and CSE project shared with their Israeli counterpart.

Canada also monitors west Asia through the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Thousands of Canadian military personnel assist NORAD’s operations, which includes US military planning in the region. NORAD systems offered surveillance and communications support for the 1991 and 2003 wars on Iraq and when Baghdad fired 39 SCUD missiles into Israel in 1991, the NORAD/USSPACECOM missile-warning Center at Cheyenne Mountain Colorado warned Israeli leaders about incoming SCUDs. During the 1973 Ramadan/Yom Kippur/Arab–Israeli War, NORAD was placed on heightened alert. Washington wanted to deter the USSR from intervening on Egypt’s behalf.

Another military alliance Canada is part of formally works with Israel. Israel has a strategic partnership with NATO and was one of the five original major non-NATO ally countries. Over the years NATO’s annual Maple Flag war games at Cold Lake, Alberta, has included Israeli fighter pilots.

Canada’s international, US centric, military and intelligence alliances are part of how Canada enables Israel’s holocaust in Gaza. For Palestinian solidarity in Canada to be effective, these alliances must be opposed.

Yves Engler is the author of 13 books. His latest book, available now, is "Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy”.

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