On Saturday November 16, hundreds of people gathered outside 16 factories and facilities across the country to expose Canada’s involvement in the production and maintenance of the F-35 fighter jets that are devastating Gaza and Lebanon, and to demand that Canada impose an immediate, two-way arms embargo on Israel. Each targeted company produces components of Lockheed Martin’s flagship war plane, which Israel is using to drop 2000 lb bombs on residential neighborhoods, schools, and refugee camps in what is already the most destructive bombing campaign of the twenty-first century.
Protests took place throughout the day at factories producing key F-35 components – including Asco in Delta BC, which manufactures wing bulkheads, the “largest single piece” of the F-35, Ben Machine Products in Vaughan, the only factory in North America able to make key components of the F-35’s electro-hydraulic actuation systems, and Ottawa-based Gastops, which is the sole manufacturer of the F-35’s engine sensors. This Day of Action was organized by the Arms Embargo Now coalition, which has been pushing the Canadian government to enact an immediate, two way arms embargo on Israel.
“Israel has used the F-35 jets extensively in its aerial bombardment of Lebanon, which has killed thousands in the last month, destroyed homes and hospitals, and displaced over a million people,” said Nancy from the Palestinian Youth Movement. “My own family in Lebanon is experiencing these horrors. My little cousins can’t go to school right now, and have to live with the constant sound of bombs. I live in Kitchener-Waterloo, and multiple factories near me are making components for those killing machines. I refuse to allow businesses in my backyard to send weapons to Israel’s genocidal project. I’m protesting at one today to demand that Canada enforce a two-way arms embargo on Israel.” (more...)
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