Do you want to believe your government when it says it stopped exporting weapons to a country accused of mass civilian slaughter? I asked that question because the public record and commercial shipping data refuse to let the government’s statements stand unchallenged.
A 53‑page forensic report by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), World BEYOND War (WBW), and the Arms Embargo Now campaign reconstructs a Canadian arms trail to Israel using two complementary techniques: commercial shipping data and Israeli Tax Authority import records. The study documents dozens of shipments, detailed commodity codes, and permit records that together show military‑related items (including ammunition and aircraft components) moved from Canadian manufacturers toward Israeli defence firms between October 2023 and July 2025. Arms Embargo Now World Beyond War
Here are the clearest findings that demand public answers. The report identifies 47 commercial shipments traced from Canadian manufacturers to Israeli weapons companies and 391 import declarations in Israeli Tax Authority data, covering: bullets, weapons parts, aircraft components, and communications equipment. It also tallies 421,070 items classified by Israeli customs as “bullets,” including a single April 2025 shipment of 175,000 rounds. Those figures are exact and sourced from the ITA classification codes the authors examined.
Those are not abstract numbers. The report shows Canadian‑made components integrated into F‑35 fighter jets (the very jets used in high‑casualty strikes) and calculates roughly $2.1 million in Canadian components per F‑35. It also documents $18.9 million in direct military exports to Israel under 164 permits, even after a government announcement that it would pause new permit approvals on January 8th, 2024. In short, previously authorized permits, and ongoing commercial flows, allowed lethal material to continue moving.
The shipping methods matter. According to the report, most of the tracked shipments moved by air (45 of 47 identified commercial shipments), with some traveling on passenger aircraft that carried civilian travellers in the same holds as military cargo. The logs point to routes through: Frankfurt, Paris, New York, Abu Dhabi and New Delhi, and identify Elbit Systems and subsidiaries among primary recipients. The investigators also detail a chain of companies: Nexeya Canada, CMC Electronics, and Stelia Aerospace North America, implicated in supplying critical F‑35 systems.
The human cost is the anchor here. Since October 2023 tens of thousands of Palestinians have died in Gaza. The report frames Canada’s exports not as benign commerce, but as material support enabling weapons systems used in strikes on densely populated areas, including an F‑35 attack on July 13th, 2024, that dropped multiple 2,000‑pound bombs on Al‑Mawasi, killing and wounding scores of civilians. If Canadian components help keep those jets airworthy, those parts are not peripheral. They are part of a chain that enables deadly force.
Government statements do not line up with these records. Ministers and prime ministers have repeatedly said Canada restricted arms exports to Israel; the report shows that previously issued permits and commercial transfers kept the flows going. The Library of Parliament and permit records cited in the study show 164 permits and $18.9 million in direct exports in 2024 alone, hard figures that contradict public reassurances.
The report also names troubling commercial practices: shipments routed via intermediaries, cargo on passenger flights, and brokers such as the Canadian Commercial Corporation appearing in export chains. The fact pattern raises legal and ethical questions about compliance with Canada’s export controls and international obligations, not least the obligation to avoid enabling internationally prohibited conduct.
Civil society and lawyers compiled a series of precise, public Yes/No questions directed at Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Indira Anand. I leave that list exactly as submitted; it functions as an evidence‑based demand for clarity and documents the kind of answers a democratic government must provide in public. (Full list preserved below.)
Why does this matter beyond outrage? A democratic state answers to facts. When permit records, commercial bills of lading, and foreign import classifications line up, they create a public record that either confirms or refutes ministerial statements. This report supplies a record. If ministers insist their earlier claims were true, they must now release shipping manifests, permit details, and communications that show how these shipments were authorized, routed, and cleared. The public record should either prove government claims or force political consequences.
What should journalists and the public demand next? First, immediate transparency: publish the manifests and the permit files for each shipment identified in the report. Second, an independent audit of Canada’s export control decisions since October 2023, focused on the use of previously authorized permits and the legal criteria applied to “paused” approvals. Third, an inquiry into passenger aircraft carriage of defence‑adjacent cargo that could imperil civilians. These are specific, achievable actions that align with the evidence presented.
This article scratches the surface of a complex commercial and regulatory network. The report is the starting point, not the end. If Canada values the rule of law and human rights, it must answer the questions the evidence demands. If it refuses, citizens and parliamentarians must press for the transparency and legal review needed to restore trust.
YES or NO QUESTIONS for Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Minister Anita Anand
(kept exactly as submitted — preserved as a public accountability demand)
On Export Data:
YES OR NO: Is Canada arming Israel?
YES OR NO: Will you admit that Canada exported 421,070 items classified as “bullets” by the Israeli Tax Authority while the IDF gunned down Palestinians awaiting aid?
YES OR NO: Is your own Library of Parliament report (showing 164 permits worth $18 million used in 2024, plus 2 new permits issued) incorrect?
YES OR NO: Will you release shipping manifests to prove you’re telling the truth this time, or continue hiding evidence while Gaza burns and Palestinians starve?
On Government Deception:
YES OR NO: Can you provide any evidence that 421,070 “bullets” documented by Israeli customs are actually “paintball-style projectiles” as you claimed?
YES OR NO: Will you clarify if your government’s stance is that providing equipment to assist in the “training” of the IDF, while it commits war crimes in Gaza and violates international law in the occupied West Bank, is acceptable under our current export regime?
YES OR NO: Is Kenny Ade from Nexeya lying when he confirmed to “Toronto Today” that he shipped F-35 components to Elbit Systems on Lufthansa passenger flights?
YES OR NO: Will you provide proof that Canadian weapons aren’t killing Palestinians in Gaza, or admit you have no evidence or control over how Israel deploys its weapons?
YES OR NO: Will you retract the straw man refutations about mortars and explosives on commercial planes—claims the report never made— that you made to distract from your government’s complicity in genocide?
YES OR NO: Will Prime Minister Carney fire Minister Anand for lying about arms exports?
On Complicity in Genocide:
YES OR NO: Can you prove that Canada is not violating international law by arming a documented genocide that has killed over 62,000 Palestinians?
YES OR NO: Will you immediately cancel all export permits and implement a full two‑way arms embargo within 48 hours?
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