The Canadian government is moving nearer to obtaining armed drones, worth $5 billion of Canadian taxpayer dollars.
Now over 50 groups representing about 70 organizations have endorsed the campaign, and more joining in.
Organ izations can endorse HERE.
Take one minute to write a letter to the Minister of Transport, Omar Alghabra, and the Minister responsible for Procurement, Filomena Tassi.
Let them know that you call on them to:
- Cancel the procurement process for an estimated $5 B contract for armed surveillance drones;
- Cancel the contract with Elbit Systems for Arctic surveillance drones;
- Prohibit ZIM ships from accessing Canadian ports; and
- End all trade in weapons with Israel through a two-way arms embargo and ending military-security cooperation with Israel.
Over 3,000 letters sent!
Over 1000 letters were sent pre-election. Now that the new Cabinet is in place, it is the time to send this message clearly to the Ministers responsible.
The Canadian government is moving nearer to obtaining armed drones, worth $5 billion of Canadian taxpayer dollars.
Canadian government officials briefed industry partners on systems requirements which includes long-range surveillance and the ability to engage targets remotely, both considered important features to protect Canada as well as for participating in foreign missions.
According to Justin Ling of Vice News in 2020, this contract for up to $5B, would see the armed drones in the air by 2025.
Let the Ministers responsible for procurement and transport know we are calling on them to cancel the procurement process underway for an estimated $5B contract for unmanned surveillance.
It is essential that civil-society groups are engaged in carefully scrutinizing the policies that would guide Canada’s military use of any drones for domestic surveillance and in foreign missions. This is even more essential when these unmanned devices may carry arms.
Armed drones threaten people’s lives around the world. Rather than making the world safer, they are used in extrajudicial executions, surveillance of targeted populations and other violations of human rights. Palestinians in Gaza live under a constant threat of armed drones, filling the skies nightly with their distinctive hum. Now, the Canadian government wants to spend taxpayer dollars to purchase armed drones – and one of the leading contenders was “battle tested” on Palestinian and Syrian civilians by the Israeli military.
The Canadian BDS Coalition, Just Peace Advocates and over 50 other civil society groups have come together in this call. A call to urge immediate action by the Canadian government to stop the armed drone procurement process, and to demand Canada impose a two-way military embargo with Israel.One of the companies on the government of Canada short-list for the Remotely Piloted Aircraft System for the National Aerial Surveillance Program, T8493-150035/D contract is the research, development and manufacturing arm of the Israeli military, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The Israeli military, using IAI products developed explicitly for its use, routinely commits war crimes against the people of Palestine and exports war machines that have been ‘tested’ on Palestinians and Arabs, especially in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
In recent months, people of conscience in Canada watched in horror as the Israeli regime ruthlessly targeted Palestinians from all regions of historic Palestine. What started as a popular movement to #SaveSheikhJarrah residents from further ethnic cleansing expanded into a broad unity of Palestinians from Jerusalem to Gaza to Haifa to Toronto and Vancouver all sending the same message. Palestinians will no longer accept the status quo of Israeli apartheid.
As the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq has reported:
“Israel has used its arms industry to systematically control the Palestinian people and repress all Palestinian challenges to its military occupation and apartheid regime. Israel uses unnecessary, disproportionate, and excessive force while suppressing peaceful protests, at search-and-arrest operations, and at checkpoints, in complete disregard for Palestinian life. Israel’s excessive use of force is further evidenced now, as Israeli forces continue to attack Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian protesters throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel.”
We further join the call to exclude ZIM, Israel’s largest cargo shipping company, which routinely transports Israeli arms to their final destination, from Canadian ports.
As noted by the Canada Palestine Association earlier this year:
“Port Authorities in Canada fall under the Ministry of Transport. As such, Minister Alghabra, allowing and enabling such Israeli apartheid profiteering makes both the ports and the Canadian government further complicit in the ongoing dispossession of the Palestinians… Your ministry is already mired in controversy for refusing to cancel a contract with Elbit Systems to purchase one of their drones. Who would have imagined that the Canadian Ministry of Transport would be so entangled with Israeli apartheid?”
Current situation with ZIM ship on fire & toxic containers is alarming:
The Canadian Coast Guard has indicated more than 100 shipping containers, of which at least two are carrying hazardous chemicals, fell from a ZIM-operated cargo ship that later caught fire. Marine experts are concerned fish and perhaps whales will suffer from chemical burning as a result of the accident.
#NoIsraeliArms4Canada #TimeForSanctions #BDS #MilitaryEmbargo #StopArmingIsrael
Organized by the Canadian BDS Coalition
Endorsed by more than 80 organizations
Academics for Palestine-Concordia
Africa4Palestine
Al Haadi Musalla
Al-Haq
Al-Quds Committee Toronto
American Muslims for Palestine
Arab Palestine Association of Ontario
BanKillerDrones.org
Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation (BBCF)
Bathurst Street United Church
Boycott from Within – Israeli citizens for BDS
Canada Palestine Association
Canada Palestine Support Network
Canada Palestine Support Network — CanPalNet
Canadian Arab Federation
Canadian BDS Coalition
Canadian Boat to Gaza
Canadian Council for Justice and Peace
Canadian Council of Muslim Women Montreal
Canadian Foreign Policy Institute
Canadian Peace Congress
Canadian Union of Postal Workers/Syndicat des travailleurs et travailleuses des postes
Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice (CUSJ)
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
Catholics for Justice and Peace in the Holy Land
Coalition Aganist Israeli Apartheid-Victoria
Coalition to Divest Philadelphia from the War Machine
Collectif Judéo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine
Communist Party of Canada
Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships Program
Environmentalists Against War
Fields of Peace
Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice
Fondation canado-palestinienne du Québec (CPFQ)
Friends of Kashmir Canada
Friends of Sabeel North America
Global BDS Movement
Global Peace Alliance Society
GreaterToronto for BDS
Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War
HR4A ( Human Rights for All) Saskatchewan
If Not Now Toronto
Independent Jewish Voices Canada
International Solidarity Movement (ISM)
Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
Just Peace Advocates
Justice For All Canada
Justice For Palestinians, Calgary
La Coalition BDS du Québec
Labor for Palestine
Labour Against the Arms Trade
Mid-Islanders for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO)
Niagara Movement for Justice in Palestine-Israel (NMJPI)
Nonviolence International Canada
nowar-paix
Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
Ottawa Raging Grannies
Palestine House
Palestine Solidarity Campaign – Cape Town
Palestine Solidarity Network – Edmonton
Palestine Solidarity St. John’s, Newfoundland
Palestine Solidarity Working Group – Sudbury
Palestinian and Jewish Unity
Palestinian Canadian Community Centre -Palestine House
Palestinian Canadian Congress
Palestinian Youth Movement-Vancouver
Peace Alliance Winnipeg
Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW
Peacehome Campaign
Peaceworks Midland
People for Peace, London
Regina Peace Council
Resistance Art
Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Saskatoon Peace Coalition
Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste
Solidarité populaire Estrie
Toronto Raging Grannies
Veterans for Peace ch 27
Victoria Peace Council
World BEYOND War
World Beyond War — South Africa
Organizations that would wish to endorse can do so HERE.
