A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada (GAC) confirmed that two military export permits the Liberal government authorized earlier this year are for goods related to Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system.
The Maple recently revealed that the government authorized two permits in February with a combined value of $37.2 million for goods under an export category that covers “bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles, other explosive devices and charges and related equipment and accessories,” and another category that includes military “technology.”
At the time, GAC refused to disclose any further details about the goods involved or how they were to be used in Israel, claiming that “commercial confidentiality” prevented it from sharing such information.
Alex Cosh
In recent weeks, however, the department has been under increasing pressure to share more information about Canada’s arms trade with Israel after a report unearthed shipping records and Israeli Tax Authority data that showed new details about Canada’s continuing exports to Israel.
As reported by The Maple in June, Canadian companies sold $18.9 million in military goods to Israel last year using permits authorized before Jan. 8, 2024. On that date, the Liberal government implemented a pause on some new permits and subsequently suspended “around 30” existing permits for goods it believed could be used in Gaza.
Alex Cosh
When pressed recently about last year’s exports, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s spokesperson, James Fitz-Morris, told The Canadian Press that $2.3 million of the goods shipped in 2024 were “electronic components for detection equipment” in Israel’s Iron Dome system.
While Prime Minister Mark Carney had previously indicated that goods related to the Iron Dome were exempt from the pause on new permits, Fitz-Morris’s remark was the first direct admission from a government official that Canadian companies are actually shipping such goods to Israel.
After this was revealed, The Maple asked GAC if it would now confirm whether or not the two permits authorized on February 28 this year for a total value of $37.2 million were also for goods related to the Iron Dome.
In an email, spokesperson John Babcock wrote: “The Department can confirm that two permits were issued in 2025 for parts for items that in turn would be used for Israel’s Iron Dome defences.”
Access to information requests filed by The Maple showed that the two military export permits authorized on February 28, when Justin Trudeau was still prime minister, are the only ones to have been newly approved between January 15 and July 16.
The permits are valid for a total of two years.
The Maple asked GAC why the department claimed “commercial confidentiality” prevented it from sharing more information about the export permits last month, only for it to reveal the details weeks later. No response was received.
Iron Dome Still A Concern
Critics have long pointed out that the Iron Dome enables Israel to carry out acts of aggression without fear of serious retaliation, and is a key component of Israel’s ability to inflict massive civilian casualties at a scale that dwarfs its own losses.
The system has been operational since 2011, and was developed by Israeli companies Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries with support from American defence company Raytheon. While the system does protect some civilian areas, it also intercepts projectiles headed towards “critical assets,” according to the Raytheon website.
The Iron Dome is primarily designed to intercept short-range projectiles of the kind used by Palestinian and Lebanese resistance groups, while other Israeli systems are geared toward stopping medium to long-range missiles of the kind used by Iran.
However, the Iron Dome may have functioned as a “last resort” when some Iranian missiles breached Israel’s other defence systems during Iran’s retaliatory strikes in June.
The Iron Dome and other Israeli systems have also repelled missiles fired from Yemen, where the group Ansarallah launched attacks to pressure Israel over its ongoing war on Gaza.
Israel’s war on Gaza has to date killed at least 61,709 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza health officials, and is almost universally recognized as a genocide by major international human rights organizations as well as by leading genocide scholars.
The actual death toll is likely much higher, according to a study published by The Lancet in February and other sources. A letter sent to The Lancet last year suggested that “it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”
In a statement, Michael Bueckert, acting president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, told The Maple: “Canada may wish to pretend that there is a clear separation between Israel’s so-called defensive and offensive weaponry, but this is a false dichotomy both morally and materially.”
“By approving exports related to the Iron Dome, Canada is providing a shield for Israel’s genocidal attacks on Palestinians. To end Israel’s genocide and illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, Canada must decisively break all economic and military ties with Israel. This starts with a comprehensive two-way arms embargo, without exceptions.”
Yara Shoufani, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, echoed that call. She told The Maple: “Israel is able to continue its genocide unabated precisely because of the endless flow of both offensive and defensive weaponry to its arsenal.”
“While Canada continues to mislead the public with technicalities and outright lies about permit pauses, these new permit approvals are a reward to Israel for its genocide, and show us clearly that the only acceptable course of action is the implementation of a two way arms embargo.”
Exemptions for ostensibly defensive weapons are not applied in other cases where Canada has imposed restrictions on exports to states accused of committing war crimes, such as Russia.
GAC states that it maintains a “presumptive denial policy on the export and brokering of any controlled goods and technology to Russia [emphasis added].”
