- Alex Cosh exposes Canada’s role in arming Israel
- Investigation reveals Canada’s “non-lethal” military exports include explosives
- Despite motions, Canada continues military trade with Israel
Alex Cosh is an editor at The Maple, an independent Canadian news startup opposed to the status quo.
Cosh is a youthful journalist endowed with the temperament of an antiquated muckraker. His bunkum antennae are calibrated to identify and expose the state-sanctioned nonsense that a significant portion of the establishment media in Canada deliver by hand as compliant couriers.
Therefore, while prominent corporate organizations eagerly followed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s enthusiastic endorsement of Israel’s intentions to exterminate Gaza, Cosh has utilized his expertise and resourcefulness to expose Canada’s complicity in that nefarious endeavour.
This has resulted in a proliferation of news articles describing how private companies facilitate the flow of military “aid” from Canada to Israel, the nature of military “goods” exported to Israel, frequently through the United States, and the exponential growth of Canada’s arms trade with Israel to tens of millions of dollars annually over the last decade.
Cosh has also scrutinized the rhetorical antics of high-ranking government officials, which served to divert attention away from inquiries regarding the nature and scope of Canadian military exports to Israel, as well as to deny and sow doubt regarding the approval status of any permits since early October, which could have contributed to the desolate, post-apocalyptic appearance of Gaza.
Trudeau and company reluctantly and belatedly conceded in late January, in response to pressure from a coalition of arms-monitoring and peace organizations, a large number of informed Canadians, Cosh, and other journalists, that Canada had authorized military exports to Israel after October 7.
An official from Ottawa attempted to downplay the astounding reversal by claiming that the permits were restricted to “non-lethal equipment” – a legal nonsense with no legally binding definition.
Cosh contested that exculpatory framework in February. Export data he acquired revealed that in the initial months of the Trudeau administration’s slaughter in Gaza, new permits for military exports to Israel were approved, amounting to a minimum of 28.5 million Canadian dollars ($21 million).
This figure surpassed the previous record of weapons and equipment sold in 2021, valued at 26 million Canadian dollars ($19 million).
Specific permits authorized the trade of items falling under the category of “bombs, torpedoes, rockets, and other explosive devices and charges, as well as related equipment and accessories.”
Through what erroneous metric do any of these “goods” qualify as “non-lethal equipment”?
Cosh’s investigative efforts revealed that the permits had been expeditiously issued, with one permit being processed in less than four days. Additionally, the certification dates of some of the licenses suggest that Trudeau’s aides authorized new military exports as late as December 6, despite dire warnings from United Nations special rapporteurs and genocide scholars that genocide in Gaza was imminent.
However, Cosh’s obtained documents were deficient in answering a crucial inquiry: For what period were the permits valid? This created the potential for the shipment of additional “goods” to Israel, presently or in the future.
Members of the House of Commons, including New Democrats and Green Party representatives, demanded clarification from Foreign Minister Melanie Joly regarding the extent, magnitude, and timing of Canadian military exports to Israel in response to Cosh’s revelation.
Subsequently, disclosures commenced, presumably to contain the negative political repercussions and imbue a damaged minister’s image of slothfulness.
On March 14, the initial backroom plant was published. Anonymous sources claimed that on January 8, Joly ceased authorizing new export permits for “non-lethal” military goods due to the “extremely fluid” situation in Gaza.
Genocide, described as an “extremely fluid” situation, is appalling even for career bureaucrats who are accustomed to employing preposterous doublespeak.
CBC/Radio-Canada reported the same day that the federal government was “slow-walking” an application to authorize the sale of armoured patrol vehicles to Israel by a Canadian manufacturer.
The implication was that Joly was working.
The New Democrats, the sham socialist party of Canada, failed to persuade some of their members. They introduced a nonbinding motion in Parliament on March 18 requesting that Canada “suspend all trade in military goods with Israel.”
While not legally obligatory, the motion’s adoption would have resulted in a comprehensive arms embargo in both directions.
Unsurprisingly, the motion was defeated, as the Liberals led by Trudeau merely reached a consensus to “cease the further authorization and transfer of arms exports to Israel.”
The weakened, non-binding motion was approved with the support of the government.
Confusion, backlash, and hysteria ensue.
Foreign Minister Joly told the Toronto Star, referencing a slogan from a Coca-Cola advertisement from the 1970s, that the motion is the “real thing” – whatever that means.
Hasard editors, lacking familiarity with the specific provisions of the motion, generated headlines declaring Canada’s imposition of an arms embargo on Israel.
A few “progressive” Americans who were readily impressed exclaimed, “Hurray!” In the interim, a multitude of Israeli politicians and editorial writers who are easily angered derided the motion as a contrived stunt orchestrated by a B-movie nation that would have little to no impact on Israel’s pursuit of “total victory” in Gaza and beyond – whatever that entails.
Put, wait. The arms embargo is not even an embargo.
Cosh wrote an extensive article on March 20 stating that military export permits authorized before January 8 will remain valid. The extant policy of the Trudeau administration, which is to pause approvals of new export permit applications without necessarily rejecting them, remains unchanged.
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This was the government’s stance before the passage of the disembowelled motion by the New Democrats in Parliament. The problem is that the flow of Canadian military supplies to Israel will continue.
Heather McPherson, a newly elected member of the Democratic Party, verified the gist of Cosh’s astute analysis by stating to The Maple that existing permits will remain unchanged. This could potentially result in the delivery of military exports to Israel valued at tens of millions of dollars.
Trudeau et al. have not ruled out purchasing Israeli military hardware, including that which human rights organizations have identified as having been “tested on” Palestinian civilians, to add insanity to a failed arms “freeze.”
The Canadian military declared its intention to invest $31.6 million (43 million Canadian dollars) in an Israeli-made missile that the occupation forces have been employing to bombard Gaza within the past two days in December.
Canada, the true north, remains complicit despite being robust and accessible.
