Nestled among glassy towers in the heart of downtown Ottawa, the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) isn’t an institution that typically attracts much public attention.
But since its foundation in 1946, the Crown corporation has played a central role in helping Canadian defence companies secure billions of dollars worth of contracts with foreign governments.
One of its top clients is the United States Department of Defense (DoD), and this flow of military trade has continued apace despite Canada’s relations with an increasingly belligerent U.S. coming under strain over the past year.
In a webinar broadcast via YouTube last October, CCC staff said “Canada remains firmly committed to its defence and trade partnership with the United States” and applauded how “Canadian innovation strengthens U.S. defence readiness.”
As an example, the staff highlighted a contract the CCC secured between the U.S. Navy and Alberta-based company QinetiQ Target Systems for “uncrewed targets” that simulate missile and aircraft threats for air defence systems.
Rewind a few months, and the rhetoric from Prime Minister Mark Carney painted a rather different picture of the state of Canada-U.S. defence relations.
During the 2025 federal election campaign, Carney said the era of Canada deepening its trade and defence ties with the U.S. was “over,” following U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated threats against Canada’s sovereignty.
That sentiment persists among the Canadian public. In a January Ipsos poll, 56 per cent said they are fearful that Trump might try to use military force against Canada (although an equal number said they are confident the U.S. would never invade).
In a more recent Nanos poll, 55 per cent of Canadians said they consider the U.S. to be the biggest threat to the security of Canada right now, far ahead of China (15 per cent) and Russia (14 per cent).
This year, the U.S. has carried out acts of military aggression against Venezuela, threatened to invade Greenland and is now poised to strike Iran. It has also assumed an increasingly aggressive stance towards Cuba.
Concerns have been raised about the U.S. military using Canadian technology to carry out illegal actions.
Last fall, Project Ploughshares released a report finding that Canadian sensors built by L3Harris Wescam were used by the Americans to carry out airstrikes on two small boats in the Caribbean.
In 2020, the CCC brokered a $380 million USD contract between L3Harris Wescam and the U.S. Army.
As well, the CCC was the signatory of a $78.8 million contract amendment in September 2024 for the sale of artillery propellants to the U.S., which named Israel as one of the end users of the goods.
This came to light despite the Liberal government claiming it would stop any military exports that Israel could use in its genocide in Gaza.
This is just one of several contracts that have drawn scrutiny and criticism.
How It Works
The CCC signs contracts with foreign governments on behalf of private companies, meaning the contracts are backed by the Government of Canada.
In the case of U.S. contracts, the CCC serves as the officially “designated contracting authority” for U.S. military purchases of Canadian goods.
The Crown corporation’s about page states: “Our unique relationship with the U.S. DoD is designed to coordinate the continent’s common defence and increase economic cooperation through defence requirements.”
In 2024-25, the CCC signed contracts worth $2.1 billion through the U.S. DoD prime contractor service, almost double the value of all contracts signed in the previous year.
About $1 billion of goods were shipped through the Canada-U.S. Defence Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA), up from $870 million exported in 2023-24.
DPSA, which was first signed in 1956, forms the basis of Canada’s military trade with the U.S. The agreement, as described on the CCC’s own history page, emerged because “both countries faced a common threat from communist nations.” In its most recent report, the CCC said it has “continued to prioritize the DPSA.”
Kelsey Gallagher, a researcher with Project Ploughshares, explained that DPSA “allows for a kind of pseudo free trade zone and weapon systems going from Canada to the U.S.”
“The selling of weapons to the U.S. government is central to the CCC.”
Under DPSA, the U.S. DoD treats Canadian companies as if they are domestic suppliers, and in most cases the companies do not require export permits from the Canadian government to sell to the Americans.
The CCC receives an annual $13.8 million appropriation from Parliament, and in its most recent report, claimed that for every dollar it received, it signed $150 of export contracts.
According to analysis by Gallagher, some of the Canadian companies supplying the highest value of goods for DPSA contracts have included General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, INDAL Technologies Inc., L3Harris Wescam Inc., Rolls-Royce Canada Inc., and Air Boss Defense Group Inc.
Despite the political climate surrounding Canada’s relations with the U.S., the CCC continues to actively promote such exports.
“This is not seen as something that is problematic or provocative or controversial,” said Gallagher. “This is just business as usual, despite the international geopolitical arrangement seemingly dismantling in front of us.”
Saying And Doing
CCC’s work has historically served as a channel by which Canadian companies can participate in programs that the Canadian government itself has distanced itself from or claimed to not be directly involved with.
Back in 1985, then-prime minister Brian Mulroney said Canada would not directly participate in “Star Wars,” U.S. president Ronald Reagan’s nuclear missile defence program. Canadian companies, however, were encouraged to bid for Star Wars contracts with the help of the CCC.
In 2003, Canada did not deploy troops in the initial U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. But the CCC continued to facilitate contracts that supplied the U.S. with military goods, including a model of armoured vehicle that the U.S. military said had been “highly effective” in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2014, the Crown corporation brokered one of the most controversial Canadian arms deals in history: a $15 billion light-armoured vehicle sale to Saudi Arabia.
The deal was initially signed under then-prime minister Stephen Harper, but the Justin Trudeau government did not cancel the contract despite a major diplomatic spat over concerns about Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record.
It is also common for Canadian military exports to the U.S. to be resold to third countries, as appeared to be the case with the artillery propellant transfer to Israel.
A report published by a coalition of civil society groups in November 2025 identified hundreds of shipments of Canadian-made F-35 fighter jet components, other aircraft parts, and explosives and flammable materials to U.S. facilities that supply the Israeli military.
This loophole recently prompted a bill in Parliament calling for tighter regulations on all Canadian military exports, including those sold to the U.S. The bill, sponsored by NDP MP Jenny Kwan, is currently in its second reading.
A leaked briefing document obtained by The Maple revealed that the Liberals oppose the bill in part due to fears about upsetting the U.S. government and disrupting military trade.
Making Deals
According to Gallagher, there is “tension” between the CCC and Global Affairs Canada (GAC), the federal department responsible for overseeing export regulations.
Whereas GAC is required to ensure exports are compliant with Canada’s human rights obligations under the Arms Trade Treaty, the CCC is not, said Gallagher.
“People within the CCC, they’re not licensing officials, so when they’re looking at making a contract, they’re actually not looking at the same regulatory threshold or human rights threshold that their colleagues at Global Affairs Canada would be looking at,” he explained. “They’re looking to make deals.”
The CCC does have an internal human rights committee that assesses risks associated with some transfers. The CCC has also published an exporter code of conduct that commits to addressing any “actual and potential human rights impacts” associated with its projects.
As first reported by The Maple last year, the human rights committee published an internal report identifying 99 cases of Israeli war crimes and other abuses, including those carried out with weapons supplied to Israel by the U.S.
The report included an annex listing dozens of Canadian contracts for goods destined for the U.S. military.
Despite the report, the Crown corporation claimed that the risks associated with the proposed shipment of artillery propellants to Israel via the U.S. had been “appropriately mitigated.”
The CCC later claimed in a statement to The Maple that there was no confirmation that Israel would be an end user of the goods, but declined to explain how it arrived at that conclusion.
This week, Senator Yuen Pau Woo wrote to the CCC asking for it to release an unredacted copy of the human rights report regarding transfers to Israel, and to publicly explain any human rights risks and mitigation measures in place.
As recently reported by CBC News, the CCC wrote to then-international trade minister Dominic LeBlanc in March 2025 notifying him of the artillery propellant contract.
In that letter, CEO Robert Kwon said the CCC was “proceeding with heightened prudence, including full consultation with Global Affairs Canada.”
In the same letter, however, Kwon also took the opportunity to highlight the “enhanced collaboration between between Canadian exporters and the U.S. Department of Defense, and a vibrant Canadian supply chain in the defence sector that can meet US defence requirements.”
The Maple emailed the CCC asking for an interview with Kwon to discuss CCC’s continued promotion of Canadian military exports to the U.S. despite the current geopolitical climate.
A spokesperson declined an interview, but wrote in a statement: “The United States remains an important market and CCC is committed to supporting Canadian exporters draw maximum value from DPSA.”
“Further, Prime Minister Mark Carney set a goal for Canada to double its non-U.S. exports in the next decade. As an important part of the Government of Canada’s trade diversification toolkit, CCC will work in lockstep with other Crown corporations and Canadian government stakeholders to meet this pivotal moment for Canada’s economy and its trade diversification objective.”
In December 2025, Canada became the first non-European country to join the European Union’s Security Action for Europe initiative.
More recently, Carney unveiled a $6.6 billion “Buy Canadian” plan for supplying the military and growing Canada’s domestic defence industry. Besides drastically bolstering domestic defence procurement, the plan also promises to increase Canadian military exports by 50 per cent over the next decade.
As reported by Global News, the prime minister promised that Canada’s defence industrial base will be “complementary” and not “competition” to American suppliers.
Absent from both the federal government and the CCC’s statements is any commitment to reducing Canadian military exports to an increasingly hostile and belligerent U.S.
“Absolutely there’s a contradiction,” said Gallagher regarding the government’s words about the current geopolitical reality, and its actions on military trade.
