Why did the Rules of Canada cause a controversy for military export to Israel?

A Canadian senator calls on Ottawa to be more transparent about her policy to limit the export from weapons to Israel, after conflicting reports about what manufacturers are allowed to send to the middle -east.

“I am shocked to hear this news about certain exports of weapons and parts that go to Israel, directly or indirectly,” said Senator Yuen Pau Woo in an interview with the Canadian press.

“Citizens are killed and starved, and the Israeli government has only made things worse.”

Ottawa insists that it has not permitted exports of fatal weapons to Israel and has blocked military goods that can be used in Gaza.

Here is a look at what we know – and not know – about Ottawa’s efforts to keep Canadian weapons from Gaza, while Israel can import military goods for other purposes.

What does Canada hold against Israel?

In March 2024, the parliament voted for a non-binding motion to stop new weapons permits for Israel. The government announced an evaluation of export permits and suspended approximately 30 of them to determine whether they were involved.

Ottawa has allowed all other military export permits to continue Israel. 164 of such permits were used to export military goods to Israel in 2024, and some are valid for years.

Of the 30 suspended permits, some have expired and the rest remain suspended, says Global Affairs Canada.

In March 2024, the office of the then Minister of Affairs Mélanie Joly said that none of the valid permits allowed the export of “fatal goods” to Israel, such as arms technology and equipment.

Her office also said that on January 8, 2024, Canada stopped approving permits for Israel, stating human rights.

While the Israeli Foreign Minister suggested when the decision would undermine Israel’s ability to defend itself, Israeli ambassador Iddo Moont said: “We will continue to defend ourselves.”

What does Canada still stand in Israel?

Ottawa has said that his limitations exclude “non-dead” equipment.

The government provided the parliament with a list of all existing permits in June 2024. The list mentions circuit boards more than a hundred times.

In September 2024, after the US Department of Foreign Affairs had approved the purchase of mortar patterns in Quebec for Israel, Joly said that the Canadian weapons were forbidden to reach the Gaza Strip.

“We will have no form of arms or parts of weapons to Gaza, period,” said Joly at the time. “How they are sent and where they are sent is not relevant.”

Anand said in a statement of 1 August that this promise actually goes back to January 2024.

Groups such as Project Ploughshares claim that the term “non-deadly” is poorly defined and misleading.

Activists say that Israel can use Canadian components, such as lenses and cameras in the Gaza war and in military campaigns on the West Bank, despite the fact that Ottawa says that Israel violates international law in both theaters.

What do Israeli customs data say?

At the end of July, the Pro-Palestinian activists reported that Israel’s tax authority was publicly mentioned from Canada, which was officially recorded in customs data such as bullets, weapons and other weapons.

The data suggested that 175,000 bullets were sent from Canada to Israel under the customs code that Israel uses for “Munitions of War and Parts thereof”, with three comparable shipments in 2024.

Israeli customs agents registered a different Canadian shipment in the category “tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, motorized, whether or not applied with weapons and parts of such vehicles.”

It took the Canadian government for three days to respond to the claims. Foreign Minister Anita Anand said it took time “to verify whether one of the serious accusations of misconduct was true.”

In her answer, Anand said that the report was poor and that the findings are “misleading and the facts considerably wrong.”

The bullets were “paintball style projectiles” that cannot be used in battle, said Anand’s office.

Senator Woo mentioned that explanation of trivialization and suggested that Israel probably uses those materials to train his soldiers.

Woo was one of the 32 senators – a third of the Senate – who called for a thorough investigation into what Israel achieved from Canada. He called the explanation of Anand “very limited, smooth and very defensive.”

“She missed a chance to understand the seriousness of the situation in Gaza,” he said.

What about planes?

Proponents claim that Canadian components are used in Israeli fighter jets and drones, referring to the export of items such as printing plates and scopes or cameras.

The report in July noted that specific companies in Israel that received Canadian import also broadcast the offensive of Israel in Gaza. The report indicated no direct, explicit evidence that Canadian weapons were used on the spot in Gaza.

Ottawa insists that it does everything it can to ensure that Canadian components are not used in Gaza.

What about that parliamentary report?

On August 4, the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council released a report that was collected by the Library of Parliament that it said that it refers much of what the government claimed.

The report of 8 July is marked “not to be published” and the library of parliament said in a statement that it offers “impartial adjusted research services for individual parliamentarians”, based on the fact that the customer’s request for the customer (will) remains confidential. “

The government says that the report is a repetition of publicly available information that is not in contradiction with what the government has publicly said.

Proponents who were seized in the part of the report showing that two weapons permits to send goods to Israel were published in 2024.

Anand’s office noted that the permits were announced to the parliament last June and were published on January 8, 2024, the day that Ottawa stopped issuing new permits.

The proponents also noted that the report called $ 2.3 million to Canadian sales to Israel mentioned as “bombs, torpedoes, rockets, rockets, other explosive devices and costs and related accessories, components and equipment.”

Anand’s spokesperson James Fitz-Morris wrote that these were “electronic components for detection equipment” in the Iron Dome system of Israel, which intercepts and destroys incoming rockets.

Has Carney changed the policy of the Trudeau government?

Although the government it says that the policy has not changed, the language has shifted.

Joly and her office spoke about non-dead applications for the poor. Anand has avoided that language.

“We have been clear for a year and a half: if an export permit for an item used to protect citizens is requested, it will be approved,” her office wrote this week in a statement.

“Since January 2024, Canada has not approved the export of fatal weapons or ammunition to Israel, and such a permit that such items could have suspended and remain inactive today.”

Woo said that Anand “has the upper hand, with the shift in language and … an attempt to try to be legalistic about the government’s compliance with its own promise.”

Fitz-Morris wrote that it would be ‘an unfair claim, at its best’ to suggest that the language of Ottawa has shifted.

“The position of the government has not changed. Minister Anand does not read from a script. She sometimes uses different words to convey the same message or to add clarity, depending on the circumstances and what she responds to,” he wrote.

“The only permits that can be granted are for the items used to defend citizens, such as the Iron dome, and items that continue via Israel as part of the global supply chain, such as items (whose) end users include Canada and/or NATO allies.”

Why should you not export all the poor to Israel?

The government says it would endanger the complex supply chains in which Canada and its allies trust as Canada refused to export military goods to Israel, or to import them from that country.

“Any consideration of a two-way weapon bargo that would block Israelically made components to enter Canada should take into account the impact that would have on Canada, including the (Canadian armed forces),” Fitz-Morris wrote.

Senator Woo said that Anand should stop all military trade with Israel.

“She digs a deeper hole for herself and for our government, especially if there are in fact legal consequences regarding complicity, helping and maintaining war crimes,” he said.

“We witness, in the memorable words of Amnesty International, a live streamed genocide. It tears to our souls.”

Israel says it is in an existential war of self -defense and Hamas blames the high number of victims.

What do Canadians want?

In an online survey under 1,522 Canadians conducted by the Angus Reid Institute from 31 July to 5 August, 54 percent said they want Ottawa to ensure that Canada does not sell deadly military equipment to Israel.

A fifth of the respondents said they want to drop the limitations. Another 27 percent said they were not sure or chose not to respond.

Is the government transparent?

“The Government of Canada Tafelt regularly reports on the export of weapons and has provided thousands of pages with documentation to the Lower House Permanent Foreign Affairs Die The Commission subsequently published on its website,” wrote Fitz-Morris.

That’s not good enough, said Woo. “To play with words, when a genocide happens before our eyes … it’s outrageous,” he said.