Could Canada Block Arms Sales to the Trump Administration?
Canadian lawmakers are questioning whether ICE can be trusted with Canadian military-grade vehicles.
Canadian lawmakers are questioning whether the US agency behind Donald Trump’s lawless immigration raids can be trusted with newly purchased Canadian military-grade vehicles.
The effort, led by one progressive member of parliament, to block unfettered sales of military equipment to the United States offers a test of the North American defense relationship and the US’s standing as the self-proclaimed leader of the free world. Trump is less than a year into his second term, but his damaging actions could have a longtime US ally treating its neighbor to the south like it’s a totalitarian dictatorship.
A Canadian manufacturer, Roshel, recently agreed to sell 20 armored vehicles to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The deal, which will cost US taxpayers an estimated $7.2 million, has raised alarm among some legislators and anti-war advocates who cite ICE’s shameless human rights abuses.
According to US contract filings reviewed by Zeteo, the sale was approved on Nov. 28, and the estimated completion date is Dec. 31. The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, is listed as the funding agency.
The armored vehicles that ICE is purchasing are qualified as STANAG 4569 Level 2 protection, a NATO designation that means it can withstand a 13-pound TNT blast and military-grade ammo.
Federal filings said Roshel was awarded the contract because it was able to fill the order quickly, adding that the vehicles are “required to support the agents in the field.”
“Beyond the information provided above, delaying this procurement to pursue a fully competitive action would significantly impact operational readiness and hinder ICE’s ability to deploy mission-critical resources in a timely manner,” the filings said.
ICE did not return Zeteo’s request for comment about the purchase.
Jenny Kwan, a New Democratic Party member of Parliament, told the Canadian Press she was “profoundly” troubled by news of the sale to ICE given credible accusations of human rights abuses.
“I think Canadians expect our industries and our government to uphold human rights domestically and internationally, and not enable the further militarization of an organization whose conduct already puts vulnerable people at great risk,” Kwan said.
Trump’s second administration has led an unprecedented mass deportation campaign, conducting violent street-level raids around the US while arresting immigrants at routine court appearances. ICE detained about 220,000 people in the first nine months of the second Trump term, according to the agency’s own incriminating data. And of the people arrested since Oct. 1, a Cato Institute analysis revealed that only 5% had a violent conviction, and 73% were not convicted of any crime. The United Nations refugee agency chief has said Trump’s deportation practices appear to have violated international law. And last month, Mayor Brandon Johnson asked the UN Human Rights Council – which investigates the world’s worst crimes against humanity – to come to Chicago, and bear witness to the administration’s violence in the Midwestern city.
Meanwhile, in an apparent silent admission of guilt, the Trump administration has withdrawn from the global stage. In November, the US refused to take part in the UN Universal Periodic Review, which examines the human rights records of all member states, marking the first time any country has declined to participate since the mechanism began in 2006.
‘Out of Step’
Roshel is headquartered in Brampton, Ontario, and it’s one of the largest manufacturers of armored vehicles in North America. US filings describe Roshel LLC as a “small business” based in Dover, Delaware, but the listed phone number has an Ontario, Canada, area code.
The firm’s founder, Roman Shimonov, grew up in Israel and served in the military there.
ICE says the Roshel vehicles it purchased were made in the US. Roshel opened a factory in metro Detroit last year, citing concerns that Trump would impose high tariffs on Canadian imports – which he has.
Kelsey Gallagher, a senior researcher at Project Ploughshares, a Canadian anti-war independent research institute, tells Zeteo that Canadian companies, including weapons manufacturers, will sometimes have a US presence due to the “integrated nature of the Canadian-American trade relationship.”
Canada signed onto the UN Arms Trade Treaty, which requires countries to vet arms transfers on a case-by-case basis for human rights abuses. But Canada made an exception for the US, meaning the vast majority of exports to its southern neighbor are not subjected to any oversight. Gallagher notes that the loophole also means there’s no public paper trail to clearly track the US sales, which account for about half of Canada’s arms exports.
“The loopholes clearly bring Canada out of step with its international legal obligations,” Gallagher says. “But even past that, we are seeing, in a material way, Canadian weapon systems, Canadian components, ending up in places where they shouldn’t be, and ending up in situations that would be not authorized by Canadian officials if there was a permitting process in place that covers its arms transfers to the United States.”
Aiding Boat Attacks, Genocide in Gaza
The ICE sale is not the first time Canadian lawmakers have scrutinized secretive US arms deals, especially since Trump was elected.
The Pentagon’s reported “double-tap” strike killing two survivors on a boat in the Caribbean Sea – which Gallagher notes has been condemned as unlawful extrajudicial killings by the UN and other human rights groups – relied on Canadian-made sensors, a Project Ploughshares investigation revealed.
And one of the biggest concerns in US weapons deals, Gallagher says, has been Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Canada said it would not authorize new permits for weapons exports to Israel starting in 2024, but the US loophole has allowed it to continue arming Israel. Canada is one of the partner nations to the F-35 program, meaning it produces and exports components of the fighter jets to Lockheed Martin.
“That is very problematic, because we know that Israel has heavily relied on the F-35 throughout the bombardment of Gaza,” Gallagher says.
Parliamentarians are weighing a provision to close the US loophole, which has gotten fresh attention in Canadian media after the widely reported ICE sale. The weapons lobby has sway in Canadian politics, and the Liberal Party in the past has pushed through arms sales to support Israel’s genocide. But given that Trump’s approval rating in Canada is near historic lows, based on his tariffs and his efforts to publicly bully the nation’s politicians, the party may be swayed to block ICE sales.
Even if the provision passes, it may be too late to stop the ICE contract. US filings estimate the sale to be completed by the end of 2025, and Canadian lawmakers aren’t expected to take up the bill before the new year.
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