Companies Ask Court To Keep Their Israel Export Details Secret

At least four companies have asked to participate in a lawsuit about Canadian weapons exports to Israel — and by doing so, revealed that they hold permits that have allowed military goods to be exported to that state since its assault on Gaza began in October.

Lawyers for TTM Technologies, General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada, GeoSpectrum Technologies and Excelitas sent letters to either the federal court registrar or Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR) in June and July. The companies asked for orders to keep details of their export permits confidential or stated their intention or potential intention to seek such orders.

The letters, which are publicly available through the court, relate to CLAIHR’s lawsuit against the federal government. The lawsuit alleges that Canada is violating its obligations under international law by sending military goods to Israel and seeks a court order to stop the issuing of export permits for such goods.

The letter from General Dynamic references documents “related to the issuance of export permits [...] since October 9, 2023,” which is the first public admission by a Canadian manufacturer that it has received new permits to export military goods to Israel since October 7.

The Attorney General has told General Dynamics that it will hand over documents about the company and its new permits to the court, the lawyer’s letter said. The lawyer also said the company was considering whether to seek confidentiality orders and asked to attend a meeting about the case.

The other three companies that sent letters about the case do not specify if their export permits were issued before or after October 7.

“Some of the companies seeking a confidentiality order are almost certainly those that are actively supplying military goods to the Israeli military,” said Kelsey Gallagher, a researcher at peace research institute Project Ploughshares.

It’s clearly in the public interest for the court to release the permits to the public, Gallagher said, given the “very real risk” that those Canadian goods could be used by the Israeli army in violations of international law in Gaza.

The companies seeking confidentiality orders produce a wide range of equipment with military uses.

General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada makes light armoured vehicles. The company’s U.S. branch has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of vehicles to Israel.

TTM Technologies produces printed circuit boards. In 2018, its subsidiary sought permits to sell these circuit boards to Elbit Systems, a giant of the Israeli defence industry. “TTM Toronto objects in the strongest possible terms to any public disclosure of the export permits granted to the company, or of any materials filed in support of obtaining them,” the company’s lawyers said in their letter to the court. “TTM Toronto’s applications were filed in an expressly confidential process, and both the permits and the supporting application materials filed to obtain them contain highly sensitive information including customer names and end uses, technical drawings, and pricing information.”

Excelitas makes surveillance and night vision tools, electronics that can be used in missiles and munitions, and other electronics. Excelitas’ lawyer asked CLAIHR to add the company as a respondent to the lawsuit because it holds relevant permits.

GeoSpectrum sells underwater acoustic systems that can be used for surveillance. As recently as 2020, Elbit described the company as its wholly owned subsidiary. The company’s lawyer told the court in his letter that the goods GeoSpectrum exports are “non-lethal water-based sonar system[s],” which he argued are not instruments of war and shouldn’t be included in the lawsuit.

None of the companies responded to requests for comment from The Maple.

A fifth company, L3/Wescam, has asked for its permits to be exempted from the lawsuit because they are for equipment that is only being sent to Israel temporarily for repair. L3/Wescam said that if it is not exempted, it wants to be added as a respondent to the lawsuit and will seek confidentiality measures “to address national security and commercially and competitively sensitive information in the Permits and related documents.”

Gallagher said the companies may have some legitimate concerns about releasing the documents, such as not wanting competitors to access details about their products and sales. But Canadian companies are always extremely careful not to release any information about their dealings with the Israeli military, he said.

“Even before the current conflict in Gaza, arming the [Israeli military] would be morally and potentially legally questionable in the best of circumstances. But considering the current humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where we’ve seen tens of thousands of civilians killed […] I think companies are likely seeking to clamp down on the transparency of their arms transactions with the Israeli government.”

Rachel Small, the Canada organizer for World Beyond War, said the information in the letters demonstrates the importance of activism seeking to block the export of military goods.

When activists blockaded TTM Technologies’ Scarborough, Ont., factory in February, she said, it was easy for critics to dismiss them because of the secrecy around arms exports and a lack of information about the company.

“Now, months later, we have evidence through this letter […] that TTM Technologies is indeed involved in Canada’s [arms] trade, and in fact has permits to directly export their military circuit boards to Israel.”