Gaza: Are passengers on flights from Montreal sitting above bullets for Israel’s war?

This article was a collaboration with La Converse, whose work is changing the way we do journalism in this city.

Trudeau International Airport is a key node in the supply chain of Canadian military exports to Israel and transported military cartridges to Tel Aviv as recently as Thursday.

Another shipment of bullets from the General Dynamics plant in Repentigny to the airport in Dorval is scheduled for Friday but a group of protesters announced they would intercept and block the delivery.

Gur Tsabar, a spokesperson for Independent Jewish Voices, told The Rover these latest shipments follow 19 others from the Montreal airport that were documented in a report, Exposing Canadian military exports to Israel, published last month. The report was compiled by researchers from World Beyond War, the Palestinian Youth Movement, Independent Jewish Voices and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. 

Using commercial shipping records with Israeli import data as evidence, the report made headlines after its launch last month. It details 19 shipments of military goods from Montreal-based Canadian suppliers to several Israel-based Elbit Systems subdivisions, with three shipments of cartridges to Tel Aviv from April 2024 to July 2025 — the latest leaving Montreal on July 18, 2025. 

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Maritime goods were also shipped by rail to Zim, Israel’s largest cargo shipping company, from Montreal to Halifax before being loaded on Zim ships to travel to the ports of Haifa and Ashdod, the report said. This freight included specialized avionics, radar systems, and aircraft components bound for Israeli defence firms Elbit Systems and Elta Systems.

Meanwhile, Israel blocked all food, water, and fuel from entering Gaza from March 18 to May 19. Though the military allowed some aid to trickle through following the siege, the hunger crisis in Gaza has led to the death of at least 271 Palestinians from starvation, including 112 children. On Aug. 5 alone, 58 aid seekers were killed by Israeli forces as they approached aid distribution sites, adding to an earlier 1,560 Palestinians shot while trying to receive food.

“The time for sanctions on Israel — including a real arms embargo — is now,” said Corey Balsam, national coordinator at Independent Jewish Voices at a parliamentary press conference in Ottawa on July 29. “This report clearly shows that [government] claims were misleading, and in many cases, lies.”

Ottawa’s response

In a statement on Aug. 1, Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand refuted the report’s claims, saying they were “misleading.” 

“Canada has drawn, and will continue to draw, a hard line: since January 2024, we have refused any new permits for controlled goods that could be used in Gaza,” she said. “Not one has been approved. We went further by freezing all existing permits in 2024 that could have allowed military components to be used in Gaza, and those permits remain suspended today.”

However, the researchers responded in a statement released Saturday that Anand’s response reflected “more of the same — vague and shifting assertions from the government, particularly around permits, that twist and turn to avoid accountability.”

“Global Affairs Canada’s own data shows 164 permits worth $18.9 million were used to export weapons to Israel in 2024 alone,” they said. “Minister Anand does not deny that Canadian weapons are being sent to Israel. Instead, she claims, without any proof, that these weapons aren’t being used in Gaza.” 

There is no effective monitoring to ensure weapons sent to Israel aren’t used in Gaza, they added. “To name just one example, the report tracked the ongoing shipment of Canadian parts for Israel’s F-35s, one of the key fighter jets used by Israel to decimate Gaza.” The report cited that shipments could also be used in Israel’s operations in other regions, such as the occupied West Bank, Lebanon or Iran. 

Transit through YUL

The researchers found that 64 of nearly 100 flights used for military shipments to Israel were commercial passenger aircrafts. One April 2025 shipment alone included 175,000 bullets, part of a total of 421,070 bullets exported since Oct. 7, 2023.

They were carried on commercial carriers like Air Canada, Air Transat, and Air France, on routes passing through Frankfurt, Paris, New York, Abu Dhabi, and New Delhi through the following airports: Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL), Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ), Vancouver International Airport (YVR) and Calgary International Airport (YYC). 

The Rover sought comment from several airlines and airports referenced in the report, but only received responses from German company Lufthansa and YYC.

“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on the nature or contents of customer shipments,” Bianca Becker, communications and projects specialist of Lufthansa Airlines. “We strictly adhere to all applicable laws and regulations governing the transport of such goods. Furthermore, dangerous goods are prohibited on passenger flights.”

 “We do not have any comment to provide for this story,” said Mackenzie Murphy, a communications officer with YYC.

The Quebec-based companies identified in the report as having shipped ammunition include: Repentigny-based General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, Apollo Microwaves, CAE Inc, CMC Electronics, Pratt & Whitney, Marinvent Corporation and Rheinmetall Canada.

Canadian firm Calian GNSS announced Tuesday it was pausing shipments of GPS equipment destined for Israel. This followed revelations that the Ottawa-based company had shipped antennas to Elbeit Systems as recently as last weekend.

Both CBC News and The Canadian Press have fact-checked the report and confirmed the data.

Backpedalling on earlier claims

Canada has a long history of exporting weapons to Israel by regulating sales by and between Canadian and Israeli companies, either directly or indirectly via the United States. Critics have also accused Ottawa of backpedalling on its promises to suspend arms exports to Israel after growing public pressure to end arms exports to Israel. 

Last summer, the U.S. government approved a sale of roughly $83CAD million worth of explosive mortar cartridges to Tel Aviv manufactured by Québec-based General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Inc. This deal was characterized by experts as an “appalling loophole” where military imports from Canada are sent to Israel after having been transferred to the United States — a process that exempts those imports from Canadian permit requirements. 

In response, former Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said on Sept. 10, 2024 that the Canadian government would block this transaction, as well as the transit of any form of arms, or parts of arms, that could be sent to Gaza. 

However, the report found a shipment of cartridges manufactured by General Dynamics, said to have occurred nine days after her announcement.

The situation in Gaza

“This communications ploy allowed Canadian companies to continue to profit from Israel’s genocide while the federal government misled Canadians into believing they were no longer arming the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza,” the report reads. 

As of August 21, 2025, the Gaza Ministry of Health reports that at least 62,192 people have been killed and 157,114 people injured by Israeli Defence Forces since October 7, 2023. 

“How many times have we heard our leaders repeat the slogan ‘Never again’ in reference to Rwanda. Bosnia. The Holocaust,” Balsam said at the press conference on July 29.

“But what do those words mean if they don’t apply now, when a people is being decimated — when massacres are happening before our eyes in real time, with Canadian bullets? It doesn’t matter who is committing it — whether it’s a so-called “ally” or not — genocide is genocide. We have a duty to act: not to aid the perpetrators, and to do everything in our power to stop it.”

Montreal resident and frequent Air Canada passenger Sofie Hojabri told The Rover she felt the findings were appalling. 

“When the report came out, there were already suspicions about the government’s involvement and where our tax dollars were going. I’m a homeowner  — we pay a lot of taxes — and it’s terrible that it’s going towards funding a genocide,” she added. “And then to find out in addition that I’m spending my own money flying overseas where things to literally kill people are on board…”

Hojabri said that when she told her mother what she had learned, she, too, was shocked and added that she regretted flying with Air Canada. “We’re all kind of accomplices in this, even more so than, like we anticipated, right? She told me: ‘I would have flown with someone else.’”

A Montreal-based travel consultant also expressed shock. “From a sustainability perspective, there’s a lot of discussions around not just sustainability from the traditional ecological point of view, but also with the importance of supporting communities. And on the perspective of the genocide in Gaza, we’re talking about how to leave the world a better place — not support industries that facilitate genocide.”

The consultant, who requested anonymity because they’re not authorized to speak on behalf of their employer, noted that the arms report was the third airline-related news story this week. They said the other two, the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike and the airline changing its loyalty program from a frequent flyer model to a revenue model that rewards high spenders, have not been well received.

“It’s a big concern to myself and my clients,” the consultant said. “It really shows a disturbing approach, from airtime management on profits, rather than focusing on supporting people in a fair way, from their flight attendants to their own travelers, and obviously from not partaking in war crimes.”