News - World: Over a hundred people have disrupted the opening of CANSEC, North America’s largest military weapons convention in Ottawa, where 10,000 attendees were expected to gather.

The protest was convened to “oppose CANSEC and the profiteering from war and violence it is designed to support”, promising to “make it impossible for anyone to come anywhere near their weapons fair without confronting the violence and bloodshed these arms dealers are complicit in.”

“We’re here today in solidarity with everyone who has faced down the barrel of a weapon sold at CANSEC, everyone whose family member has been killed, whose communities were displaced and harmed by the weapons being peddled and on display here” said Rachel Small, organizer with World BEYOND War.

“While more than 400,000 civilians have been killed in eight years of war in Yemen, while at least 24 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli forces since the start of this year, the weapons companies sponsoring and exhibiting in CANSEC are raking in record billions in profits. They are the only people who win these wars.”

Canada has become one of the world’s top arms dealers globally, with Canadian arms exports totalling $2.73-billion in 2021. However most exports bound for the United States were not included in the government figures, despite the U.S. being a major importer of Canadian weapons, receiving more than half of all Canada’s weapons exports each year.

“The Government of Canada is slated to table its annual Exports of Military Goods report today,” said Kelsey Gallagher, researcher with Project Ploughshares. “As has been the trend in recent years, we expect huge volumes of arms to have been transferred around the world in 2022, including some to serial human rights abusers and authoritarian states.”

In 2021, Canada exported more than $26 million in military goods to Israel, an increase of 33% over the previous year. This included at least $6 million in explosives. Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank and other territories has led to calls from established civil society organizations and credible human rights monitors for a comprehensive arms embargo against Israel.

“Israel is the only country to have a booth with diplomatic representation at CANSEC”, said Sarah Abdul-Karim, organizer with the Ottawa chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement. “The event also hosts Israeli arms corporations – like Elbit Systems – that regularly test new military technology on Palestinians and then market them as ‘field-tested’ at arms expos like CANSEC.

As Palestinian and Arab youth we refuse to stand by as these governments and weapons corporations make military deals here in Ottawa that further fuel the oppression of our people back home.”

In 2021, Canada signed a contract to purchase drones from Israel’s largest weapons maker and CANSEC exhibitor Elbit Systems, which supplies 85% of drones used by the Israeli military to monitor and attack Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. 

An Elbit Systems subsidiary, IMI Systems, is the main provider of 5.56 mm bullets, and it is suspected to be their bullet that was used by Israeli occupation forces to murder Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

A year after she was shot while covering an Israeli army raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, her family and friends say her killers are yet to be held responsible, and the Israeli Defence Force’s Military Advocate General’s Office has stated that it does not intend to pursue criminal charges or prosecutions of any of the soldiers involved. The United Nations says Abu Akleh was one of 191 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in 2022.