BREAKING: Canadians ramp up pressure on Trudeau and Joly with coordinated blockades of weapons manufacturers as UN calls for immediate arms embargo on Israel
[High resolution photos from each action cross-country are available for download here.]
February 27, 2024
[50 community members in Kitchener-Waterloo blocked entrances to Colt Canada’s machine gun factorythis morning.]
Kitchener-Waterloo, Victoria — As the UN is calling for an immediate arms embargo and reminding Canadian officials involved in arms exports that they may be “individually criminally liable for aiding and abetting any war crimes,” people across the country are taking action to stop Canadian-made arms from being used by Israel to commit genocide in Gaza.
Community members began blocking access to major weapons company facilities in Kitchener-Waterloo and Victoria at dawn this morning, following blockades in Toronto, Peterborough, Calgary, Québec City and Vancouver earlier this week.
“The weapons systems and components made at the facilities and by the companies that are being disrupted this week are being used by the Israeli military to massacre Palestinians, including members of my own family”, said Rawan Habib with Palestinian Youth Movement. “So long as Israel continues to commit genocidal violence in Gaza and the Canadian government refuses to put an arms embargo in place, we will continue to mobilize in the thousands across the country, to take matters into our own hands and block the flow of weapons to Israel.”
As Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues for a fifth month, Trudeau’s government has been facing escalating scrutiny and public pressure. Over 82,000 Canadians signed a parliamentary petition demanding an embargo on military exports to Israel, and 75 civil society groups called on Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly to resign if she won’t impose an arms embargo.
Canadian communities are demanding that our government end its complicity with Israeli genocide and stop all military exports. All of the companies that have been targeted by actions this week are producing weapons and arms components that are being used by Israel to attack Gaza’s civilian population and infrastructure.
Early this morning, activists blocked the road to a Colt Canada facility in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, the country’s only significant machine gun factory. Colt produced the M16, the standard-issue assault rifle used by the Israeli military from the 1990s to the early 2010s. In November 2023, Israel ordered about 18,000 M4 and MK18 assault rifles from Colt for civilian “security squads” in dozens of cities and towns, including illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“It’s been over a month since the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza. Canada and other governments are on notice: by continuing to arm Israel, you are failing to meet your legal obligations to prevent genocide, and you can be judged as being complicit, not only by Palestinians and their allies around the world, but at the Hague,” said Shatha Mahmoud, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement in Kitchener-Waterloo.
In Victoria, British Columbia, workers and organizers have linked arms and locked bikes together to block entrances to the Lockheed Martin facility, shutting down the morning shift at the world’s largest military company. Lockheed Martin manufactures F16 and F35 fighter jets, and AGM-114 Hellfire missiles for Israel’s Apache helicopters, the primary weapons systems being used in aerial attacks on Gaza over the past four months.
“As a Palestinian, I am appalled by companies like Lockheed Martin profiting off the genocide and mass displacement of my people,” said Han Elkhatib, a member of Palestinian Youth Movement in Victoria. “The Canadian government has a legal responsibility under the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to ensure its weapons exports are not used in the commission of war crimes. But Canada has been accelerating arms exports to Israel amidst this genocide. The Trudeau government needs to make their calls for a ceasefire real by implementing an immediate arms embargo on Israel.”
This week has seen an unprecedented number of actions at weapons manufacturers as public support for an arms embargo continues to grow across the country. On Monday, hundreds of people set up picket lines at TTM Technologies in Scarborough, Ontario, blocking all vehicle access and facility doors for four hours, preventing the morning shift from entering. Dozens more picketed a Safran Electronics facility in Peterborough, Ontario. TTM Technologies’ Scarborough factory produces circuit boards for one of Israel’s largest military companies, Elbit Systems, while Safran Electronics has an agreement with the Israeli government to support the development of its Arrow 3 anti-missile system and surveillance at border walls. A Raytheon facility— the second largest arms company in the world— was also disrupted early Monday morning in Calgary, Alberta.
On Tuesday, workers in Québec City disrupted a Thales facility, which has provided components for Israel’s air force, navy, and ground forces for decades. Protestors also blockaded access to a Hikvision promotional event in Vancouver, British Columbia. Hikvision sells surveillance cameras to the Israeli military, including cameras that are used in illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.
[In Scarborough on Monday hundreds of trade union members and allies from across the Greater Toronto Area blocked all access to TTM Technology’s factory which produces circuit boards for Israeli military company Elbit Systems for use by the IDF.]“Government officials are misrepresenting the nature of Canada’s military exports to Israel and are now claiming that the permits issued are for supposedly ‘non-lethal’ equipment. That is an invented and deliberately misleading category. It’s meaningless,” said Rachel Small with World Beyond War. “The companies being targeted this week send technological components to Israel that are integral elements of warplanes, missile systems, and other very lethal tools that Israel has used to kill over 30,000 Palestinians since October. Our government cannot hide this truth anymore. It must stop the export of all weapons – and parts thereof – that are being used to commit genocide.”
Today’s coordinated actions to stop arming genocide were planned by several local groups, and have been endorsed by national organizations including World Beyond War, Labour for Palestine, and the Palestinian Youth Movement.
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High resolution photos and some video are available for download here.
A map and additional information on weapons companies across Canada arming Israel is available here.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 25, 2024
Escalating actions across Canada target weapons manufacturers to demand an immediate arms embargo on Israel
[Quebec City, Vancouver] The demand for an arms embargo is growing across the country with actions in Quebec City and Vancouver today joining the call to disrupt the flow of weapons to Israel. The picket at a Thales facility in Quebec City and disruption of a Hikvision event in Vancouver come on the heels of blockades of weapons manufacturers in Toronto, Peterborough, and Calgary yesterday.
“A component of a plane that drops bombs, that’s lethal equipment!” asserted Leila Hamidouche, a member of Collectif pour la paix and Labour for Palestine, at the protest outside Thales this morning. “A true arms embargo means stopping all exports of military equipment to Israel, regardless if this government wants to brand them ‘non-lethal'” she added, referring to comments made by Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly asserting that Canada only sends ‘non-lethal’ military equipment to Israel.
Communities are taking action to demand an end to military exports to Israel, exactly one month after the International Court of Justice found a plausible case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and just days after UN experts called for an immediate arms embargo. Thales is a massive global weapons company that has been involved in Israel’s military supply chain for decades, providing various systems and components for Israel’s air force, navy and ground forces. A dozen members of PalestineQuébec, Labour for Palestine, and Collectif pour la paix picketed outside their facility on the outskirts of Québec City this morning, engaging workers arriving for the morning shift.
“It is unconscionable that Canada continues to provide political and material support to Israel as the assault on Gaza continues to escalate, and despite the horror and outcry from thousands of people of conscience across the country”, said Vancouver organizer Aysha Jameel. “Hikvision has not responded to Amnesty International’s questions about how they are fulfilling their human rights obligations as their technology is used to surveil Palestinians. We will continue to hold the government and all private entities arming Israel to account, and we will keep showing up until Canada stops arming genocide.”
Hikvision is a manufacturer of surveillance cameras, software, and technology which are used by Israeli military, police, and security agencies, including in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Hikvision was holding a commercial technology display this morning at an ADI Global Distribution site in Burnaby, outside Vancouver. Activists blocked the entrance to the event in protest of Hikvision’s involvement in Israeli military surveillance, and continued to protest outside the building after they were forced from the doors by the police.
“After months of misleading Canadians about whether Canada is exporting weapons to Israel, documents recently released revealed that our government has authorized almost $30 million of new permits for military exports to Israel since the beginning of this assault on Gaza in October,” said Rachel Small with World Beyond War. “Exporting weapons to a state that has been found to be at risk of committing genocide is a violation of international and Canadian law. Canada has enacted arms embargoes before, and it must enact one now, immediately, to stop this genocidal violence.”
The demand for an arms embargo is growing across the country. Yesterday, over one hundred trade union members and allies blocked the morning shift from entering the Scarborough manufacturing plant of TTM Technologies. This TTM Technologies plant produces circuit boards for use in the fighter jets and targeted missile systems that Israel has used to carry out its deadly assault on Gaza. Dozens of activists in Peterborough simultaneously picketed a Safran Electronics facility, which provides telemetry equipment to the Israeli government and weapons manufacturers, and spoke with many supportive workers about their employer’s complicity in genocide. Just hours afterwards, community members braved frigid temperatures to interrupt access to a Raytheon facility in Calgary. Raytheon is the world’s second-largest military company, which supplies the Israeli Air Force with guided air-to-surface missiles for its F-16 fighter jets, as well as cluster bombs and bunker busters, which have consistently been used against Gaza’s civilian population and infrastructure.
“We are seeing different actions take place at arms companies across Canada demanding an immediate arms embargo against Israel,” said Dalia Awwad, member of the Palestinian Youth Movement. “As a Palestinian, I have been gobsmacked at the Canadian government’s open defiance of international law, particularly in light of the most recent UN report directing Canada to impose an arms embargo on Israel. What’s worse is that since October, Canada has authorized a record-breaking amount of new permits for military exports to Israel. Their participation in this genocide must end now, we need an arms embargo!”
Rolling actions across the country this week will continue to target companies implicated in Israel’s genocidal violence against the Palestinian people. These actions have been planned by a number of local groups, and have been endorsed by national organizations including World Beyond War, Labour for Palestine, and the Palestinian Youth Movement.
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High resolution photos and some video are available for download here.
A map and additional information on weapons companies across Canada arming Israel is available here.
For more information about TTM Technologies as well as Canada’s complicity in Israeli state violence, please view this document brief here.
