The government’s stance on military exports to Israel is anything but clear-cut
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s announcement Tuesday that Canada has suspended 30 permits to export military materiel to Israel may have been meant to placate pro-Palestinian activists demanding an arms embargo. But without more transparency, it remains a political muddle.
One week out from a byelection in a previously safe Liberal seat in Montreal where New Democrats (and their pamphlets) are pushing Canada’s response to the ongoing violence in Gaza as a ballot question, Joly proactively used her scrum at the governing caucus’s retreat in Nanaimo, B.C. to rebut claims the Trudeau government isn’t doing enough.
“Our policy has been clear,” she said. “Since Jan. 8, we have not accepted any form of arms export permits to be sent to Israel.”
Accepting her claim that the government’s policy has been “clear” means forgetting the mess last spring when a New Democrat MP introduced a Commons motion calling on Canada to “suspend all trade in military goods and technology with Israel” that had to be watered down at the last minute so more Liberals could support it.
Activists point to the many millions of dollars in defence trade that may continue to flow Israel’s way under previously approved and still-valid permits. (The most recent list, produced by Global Affairs Canada [GAC] to respond to a request from the Commons foreign affairs committee, is available here.)
Joly told reporters she asked her department to look into Canadian companies’ existing permits.
“We are asking questions to these companies. Following that, I asked my department to look into any existing permits of arms or parts of arms that could have been sent to Israel,” the minister said.
“Following that, I suspended this summer around 30 existing permits of Canadian companies and we are asking questions to these companies.”
She did not say what her questions were.
Which permits are being probed?
A suspension is not a cancellation. Last spring, Joly was among those warning that sudden, arbitrary or politically motivated terminations invite legal action by firms that hold the government responsible for their business losses. Supply chain disruptions also cause problems for Canada’s defence procurement relationships with allies.
There may be over 200 valid permits to ship to Israel right now, so 30 suspensions falls well short of the total arms embargo activist organizations — not to mention 22 Liberal MPs — have demanded.
It would be useful to know if any of the companies now facing Joly’s “questions” are among the Canadian manufacturers activists have targeted for protests.
The lists GAC provided to the Commons committee don’t name the companies but do describe the shipments. Nearly all of the exports are components, not finished products. The most common are circuit boards and other items of hardware, like cameras used for for radar systems, surveillance and navigation. Israel has its own robust defence industry.
“Canada has not issued any permits for items destined to Israel for major conventional arms or light weapons, e.g., battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft and unmanned combat aerial vehicles, attack helicopters, warships and missiles, missile launchers, heavy machine guns and recoilless rifles, since 1991 (the earliest year for which the Department has records),” GAC deputy minister David Morrison wrote in a letter to committee members last spring.
“In terms of small arms, e.g. pistols, revolvers, carbines and rifles, over the past 30 years, there have only been four export permits issued under the [Export and Import Permits Act], in 2008, 2010, 2015 and 2018.”
So the permits in question aren’t for anything that heads straight to Gaza. That doesn’t mean they aren’t contributing to something that might wind up in the hands of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
In some cases, these exports go to an Israeli company and then ship back to Canada (or another allied country) as a finished product — procurements that, given the geopolitical tensions in Ukraine and elsewhere, Canada may desperately need.
A total “arms embargo” could risk wider political and economic blowback because it could cause other countries that buy Canadian defence products to re-evaluate their relationship with this country.
Enabling the U.S. to help Israel
In Nanaimo, Joly also touched on a more recent source of concern among pro-Palestinian activists.
“As for the question regarding General Dynamics, our policy is clear: we will not have any form of arms or parts of arms be sent to Gaza,” she said. “How they are being sent and where they are being sent is irrelevant. We are in contact with General Dynamics.”
That conversation might be tense.
An Aug. 13 news release, the U.S. Defence Security Cooperation Agency pointed to the General Dynamics facility in Quebec as the “principal contractor” on an Israeli government request for mortar cartridges. That seemed to fly in the face of Canada’s pledge not to equip Israel in any new ways as the war in Gaza rages on.
Joly’s office calls the American announcement not a final contract but a “tentative deal.” There’s been no subsequent release from the agency or the company to update its status.
In an email to CBC News on Wednesday evening, GAC spokesperson Jean-Pierre Godbout confirmed the department is “in contact with those involved with the possible foreign military sale by the United States.”
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“Global Affairs Canada does not comment on individual permits or permit applications,” the email said. “We have an obligation to protect confidential information about the commercial activities of individual companies.”
Joly seemed unequivocal, her department less so. It leaves critics with plenty of opacity to fuel their concern.
Transparency by other means is also difficult. In response to a lawsuit launched by the Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights to block military exports to Israel, four military manufacturers that continued to export products to Israel after last October’s Hamas attack asked the court for confidentiality orders to keep their competitive commercial information secret.
Ignoring international law?
Godbout’s email to CBC News also said that, “considering the rapidly evolving situation on the ground and the complexity of supply chains,” Canada had suspended “a number of export permits for military items destined to Israel since this summer.” He didn’t confirm the 30 figure.
“These suspensions are in line with Canada’s robust export controls regime and will allow time to further assess the situation to ensure consistency with Canada’s foreign policy objectives,” Godbout wrote.
Those objectives are precisely the weapon critics wield against the Trudeau government when they call it out for hypocrisy.
The most recent letter signed by 19 civil society organizations reminds Joly of some relevant factors.
One is the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty, something export permits supposedly help enforce. That treaty prohibits signatories like Canada from exporting arms if they could be used to commit series crimes under international law, including disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks.
Another is the International Court of Justice’s order to halt the IDF offensive because of a “plausible risk of genocide,” as well as its advisory opinion in July that found the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory was “unlawful.” The signatories say they believe continuing to equip Israel undermines work the push for a ceasefire, which Canada says it supports.
Groups like Project Ploughshares argue the IDF has demonstrated in this conflict that it can’t be trusted not to commit war crimes. Prominent Canadian Jewish organizations, as well as the government of Israel, vigorously dispute this characterization of the ongoing operations in Gaza.
Unlike the NDP and the Conservative Party — a staunch supporter of Israel — the Liberal Party keeps struggling to straddle the two sides in this conflict in its policies and its politics.
Partisan pressures
A letter written by 52 Liberal staffers implored the party to “wake up,” explicitly condemn Israel and revoke existing export permits. (As far as anyone knows, these dissidents remain on the payroll.)
Now a free agent following his decision to terminate the confidence-and-supply deal with the Liberals a week before byelections, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh now cites Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s failure to stop defence exports to Israel as a reason for voters to bail on the Liberals.
Singh’s foreign affairs critic, Heather McPherson — the author of that Commons motion last spring — told CBC News at their caucus retreat in Montreal this week that Joly’s latest announcement “absolutely” does not meet her concerns.
“We’ve seen her lie to Canadians before,” McPherson said, citing the government’s decision to cancel arm sales to Saudi Arabia, only to reinstate them a few months later. “For her to take months and months and months to take action is appalling.”
Both McPherson and Joly have been campaigning in Lasalle–Emard–Verdun, a Montreal riding that — even though it’s not dominated by Muslim or Jewish voters — now finds itself a test case for the fine line Liberals are struggling to walk on Gaza.
As Joly’s scrum in Nanaimo went on, she mixed her official pronouncement as foreign minister with a hot take on the by-election odds in her hometown.
“I’m convinced we will win,” Joly said.
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