How Canada helps build Israel’s fighter jets

Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Al Nasser hospital, Gaza: You can hear the F-35 overhead and it felt literally like they were about to land on top of the hospital.

Then you’d hear a whistling noise and you knew that a missile was flying down and getting ready to hit.

Text on screen: In Gaza, Israel has used F-35 jets to rain destruction on Palestinians.

The jets are made in the United States, with Canadian companies supplying key components.

Since the 1990s, more than 100 Canadian companies have been awarded F-35 contracts worth billions:

Asco, Delta B.C. – Wing bulkhead

Magellan, Winnipeg MB – Horizontal tail

FTG, Curtiss-Wright, Ottawa ON – Circuit cards

Gastops, Dartmouth N.S. – Engine monitoring sensors

Héroux-Devtek, Laval QC – Landing gear, collaborative door uplock

Stelia, Lunenberg N.S. – Weapons bay door inserts, wing parts

Honeywell, Mississauga ON – Power and thermal management system controller

Magellan Aerospace, PCC-Dorval, Apex; Kitchener ON, Dorval QC, Moncton N.B. – Machined parts

ITL Circuits, Letar; Markham ON, Concord ON – External lightning printed circuit board

Centra, Cambridge ON – Keel beem

Acroturn, Brampton ON – Landing gear components

Ben Machine, Vaughan ON – Electro-hydraulic actuation system components

Anita Anand, Canadian Defence Minister: Canada’s participation in the Joint Strike Fighter program over the past number of years has already allowed companies in Canada to secure almost $3 billion U.S. in contracts, and this number will grow.

Rob Wittman, Republican chair of the Armed Services Subcommittee: The F-35 joint program office has moved at a breakneck speed to support our closest partner and ally in the Middle East: Israel.

Text on screen: Israel is arming the F-35 jets with 2,000 pound bombs

Newscaster: The bomb that caused this damage is a 2,000 pound bomb, likely made in the U.S.A., dropped by the Israeli Air Force, at least four times as powerful as the vast majority of the bombs used by the U.S. in its fight against ISIS.

Text on screen: A Palestine solidarity movement has begun forcing a shift in Canadian policy.

Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!: Canada’s government has announced it will halt weapons shipments to Israel after the Canadian Parliament approved a non-binding resolution on the issue.

Text on screen: But Canadian companies continue shipping F-35 parts to the U.S—a loophole the Liberal government has kept open.

Activists are now focusing on a F-35 vulnerability—their dependence on a “just-in-time supply chain.”

U.S. Lt General Michael Schmidt, Director of the F-35 Lightning II Program: When you take a just-in-time mentality, it introduces a lot of risks.

You get a hiccup in the supply chain, whether it be a strike or a quality issue, and then that becomes your single point of failure.

Text on screen: Canadian activists are introducing another “hiccup”—blockades.

Rachel Small, World Beyond War Canada: When we find out, “Oh wait, these are weapons and parts that are traveling on our highways, like on the 401 right near my house,” or are being made, in some cases, nearly in your backyard.

These are points of intervention. Direct actions to interrupt the flow of weapons to Israel have been happening en masse from coast-to-coast.