The Breach barred from weapons show for ‘critical anti-war journalism’

A major weapons trade convention in Ottawa, the largest annual gathering of arms and surveillance manufacturers in North America, barred The Breach from attending because of its “critical anti-war journalism.”

The CANSEC conference, put on by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), has long been protested by community groups in Ottawa for welcoming authoritarian governments and weapons companies implicated in human rights violations.

A CADSI representative told The Breach on Wednesday that the media outlet had its accreditation request refused because it might provide “negative coverage.”

“We have the right to deny media access, and we looked at your coverage and you do aggressively critical anti-war journalism,” the representative said on a phone call.

When questioned about whether this would be an infringement on press freedoms, the representative offered access that was conditional on The Breach providing positive coverage.

“I’m willing to let you in this year,” she said. “We’ll see how it goes and what kind of coverage you do. If there is behaviour that is aggressive to member companies, like a reporter getting up in their faces and asking, ‘How do you feel about killing children?’, then we’ll have to reconsider access next year.”

“We don’t want people coming in, interviewing companies, and writing a headline like, ‘War mongers gather in Ottawa.’”

Outside the trade show on Wednesday, nearly 150 protestors from community groups carried banners reading “War Crimes Start Here” and “Stop Profiting from War” and blocked vehicles and entrances to the convention centre.

“The event hosts Israeli arms corporations–like Elbit Systems–that regularly test new military technology on Palestinians and then market them as ‘field-tested’ at arms expos like CANSEC,” said Sarah Abdul-Karim, an organizer with the Ottawa chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement who was present at the protest. 

Elbit Systems supplies the majority of drones used by the Israeli military, which has killed at least two dozen Palestinian children since the start of this year, according to Palestinian human rights organizations.

Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons maker which has armed authoritarian governments around the world and won a recent contract to supply F-35 jets to Canada, is one of the major sponsors of CANSEC.

After finally agreeing to allow a Breach journalist into the conference, the CADSI representative called back five minutes later to inform The Breach that her executive team had reconsidered the decision and was again denying access.

“They weren’t willing to take a risk,” she said.

The Breach has previously broken stories about a global network of bases the Canadian military is building, the Canadian government’s secret motives for arming Saudi Arabia, and Canadian bank loans to Elbit Systems.

The CADSI representative refused to disclose what media outlets were accredited to attend the conference, or if any other outlets were denied access.

Exhibitors have made billions off war in Yemen

The two-day conference taking place Wednesday and Thursday on the outskirts of Ottawa is attended by thousands of government delegates, lobbyists, and weapons manufacturers from around the world.

Among those exhibiting are companies who have made billions from supplying arms and services for the Saudi Arabia-led war on Yemen.

Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, BAE Systems, and Boeing have armed the aircraft that have repeatedly struck civilian targets in Yemen, including homes, schools, hospitals and marketplaces.

Canadian company General Dynamics Land Systems, which is supplying a multi-billion-dollar contract of military vehicles to Saudi Arabia, offers guided tours of its military vehicles at CANSEC every year.

The Canadian Commercial Corporation, a government agency that brokers deals between Canadian weapons makers and foreign governments, shuttles delegations from countries like Saudi Arabia and the Philippines from booth to booth.

It recently brokered a $234-million deal to sell Bell helicopters to the military of the Philippines, where former president Rodrigo Duterte boasted about pushing civilians out of helicopters.

Many of the weapons companies present have seen their stock prices and profits soar since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s defence minister directly addressed the convention Wednesday by a video statement, asking for more sophisticated weaponry.

‘Extinction starts here’

Defence Minister Anita Anand’s speech was delayed as the protestors outside snarled traffic. An inflatable dinosaur held a sign reading “CANSEC: extinction starts here” and the Ottawa Raging Grannies led protest songs.

“People came from different parts of Canada but also spoke on behalf of their communities in Palestine, in the Philippines, or in Peru,” said Rachel Small, the Canada organizer for World Beyond War. “For me it was very powerful to hear them connecting the weapons that were being sold inside that building with the violence and repression their family members are facing back home.” 

Abdul-Karim from the Palestinian Youth Movement said their goal is to “push the Ottawa City Council to ban CANSEC from operating in Ottawa at all.”

CANSEC and its predecessors have faced community protest for decades, and stopped holding their conventions in Ottawa between 1993 and 2009.

“That’s the message that we want to send today: that we are not okay with this happening every single year in our city, with our government making deals with these war criminals and being part of the imperialist war machine.”

With files from Amy Oldfield