HAMILTON, Canada
A recent report revealed Canada's continued shipment of military equipment to Israel via US weapons factories, despite Foreign Minister Anita Anand's announcement in August about "freezing all existing permits in 2024 that could have allowed military components to be used in Gaza."
The report titled, "Exposing the U.S. Loophole: How Canadian F-35 Parts and Explosives Reach Israel," stated that the evidence it provided "details hundreds of shipments from Canadian military manufacturers to the U.S. weapons factories that manufacture Israel's key warplanes, bombs, and artillery shells."
"The report also exposes, for the first time, Canada's role as a vital transit corridor for hundreds of shipments of European-made TNT en route to U.S. bomb-makers, and damning evidence of Canadian F-35 components being shipped on to Israel mere days after arriving at U.S. facilities," it said.
According to the data provided, at least "34 shipments of military aircraft components sent by American Lockheed factories to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the Israeli Air Force Base, and Israeli weapons manufacturers between April 2024 and August 2025 – immediately after receiving hundreds of matching shipments from Canadian manufacturers."
Meanwhile, "360 additional aircraft part shipments from Canadian manufacturers to Lockheed Martin's F-35 assembly facility in Fort Worth, Texas," were sent between September 2023 and August 2025.
It said that "150 shipments of Canadian explosives and flammable materials from General Dynamics facilities in Valleyfield and Repentigny, Quebec, to the U.S. Army Ammunition Plants that manufacture 2000-pound MK-84 bombs, 155mm artillery shells, and 120mm tank rounds for export to Israel.”
The report revealed that at least 433 shipments of TNT manufactured in Poland were sent to Quebec between October 2023 and November 2025, which were then transported to Canada and then to Israel.
It claimed that the TNT sent was "the 2000-pound MK-84 and I-2000 Penetrator bombs that Israel drops on Gaza."
The World Beyond War, Palestinian Youth Movement, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, and the Arms Embargo Now coalition released the report.
Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Rachel Small from World Beyond War, said, "Let me be clear on this point, despite our government's attempts to placate us, to create the illusion of having addressed Canada's arming of Israel's tax we see now the Canadian-made military goods have continued to flow to Israel this entire time.
"Indeed, bypassing all export controls in Canada by flowing through the US, they are directly supporting Israel's capacity to carry out war crimes in Gaza and maintain its occupation of Palestine," she added.
Citing former Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and Anand's remarks about cutting off permits, Small argued that "the government's pause on issuing arms export permits was largely a semantic exercise designed to fool the public while ensuring Israeli weapons manufacturers never lost access to Canadian military goods."
"The Canadian government knew all along that the majority of Canada's ongoing exports of arms to Israel didn't even need a permit from Canada because they conveniently used the US loophole to travel to Israel via the US," she said, calling it a "systematic deception" on Canada's complicity in the Gaza genocide.
Haneen Muhanna from the Palestinian Youth Movement echoed the concerns and described the "US loophole" as a "way for the government to continually claim innocence, while its weapon trade continues to go through the United States unchecked."
"While the government keeps insisting that permits are frozen and weapons aren't being shipped to be used in Gaza, the evidence shows the opposite. Canadian weapons manufacturers are not just involved; they are actively engaged. They are essential to Israel's war machine," she stressed.
Alex Paterson from Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East explained that "the US loophole is created by the export control list, a regulation under the Export and Import Permits Act that determines which weapons are subject to the permit system."
"It means that most weapons exports to the US do not require company-based permits, and that means they are not assessed for risk before being sold. This is the antithesis of our commitments to signing the Arms Trade Treaty," he said, noting that the treaty is supposed to prevent Canada's weapons from "being used in genocide and crimes against humanity with no loopholes and no exceptions."
New Democratic Party member Jenny Kwan stressed that "the Liberal government can no longer claim ignorance or distance."
"That's why I'm calling on the government to take action immediately and to support my private member's Bill C 233, the No More Loopholes Act," she announced, adding that it will be up for debate Wednesday and will be voted on in February.
Kwan urged Canadians to reach out to their respective members of parliament and demand a yes vote for the "No More Loopholes Act."
Global Affairs Canada did not immediately respond to Anadolu's request for comment.
