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Pro-Palestinian protesters block access to Oakville aerospace facility

Oakville activists are demanding the federal government to cease all arms exports with Israel - and recently took their protest to the front door of a local aerospace company
oakvillehaltonpalestineprotest
People protesting and blocking access points in the early hours of the morning at a Collins Aerospace facility in Oakville.

Early this week, multiple protest groups were seen creating a blockade in front of an Oakville aerospace company.

The demonstration, organized by groups including Oakville Halton 4 Palestine, Labour4Palestine GTA, the Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto, and World BEYOND War, disrupted operations from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.

Hundreds of protesters gathered early Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, to block access to the Collins Aerospace facility in Oakville.

According to the protest organizers, Collins Aerospace builds landing gear for F-35 fighter jets, as well as parts for F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters, which they say are heavily used by the Israeli military in airstrikes on Gaza and Lebanon.

Collins Aerospace is also a subsidiary business of RTX (formerly Raytheon), one of the world's largest aerospace and defence companies that creates military weapons like missiles, bombs and components for fighter jets.

Oakville Halton 4 Palestine says that RTX supplies these weapons to Israel's Air Force. Collins Aerospace has not publicly commented on what specifically is manufactured at their Oakville facility.

The Oakville Halton 4 Palestine protesters, however, also did not display any concrete evidence that any of Collins Aerospace' military or defence based projects are currently involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict - or any evidence there's a local connection to Oakville.

"We demand an immediate arms embargo on Israel to cut off the flow of all weapons and components to and from Israel," Oakville Halton 4 Palestine said in an email to Oakville News. "Until the government enacts as one, we, as, people of conscience, witnessing a genocide, are forced to block the flow of weapons ourselves."

This isn't the first protest in Oakville surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict. There was a large demonstration in downtown Oakville earlier this year that saw police addressing destruction of property, and some protesters climbing lamp posts.

Read more here: Hundreds attend Palestine support protest, closing downtown Oakville

Earlier in September, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Mélanie Joly stated that Canada suspended 30 existing arms permits to Israel the past summer. The federal government also is also opposed to the United States' plan to send 50,000 Quebec-made explosive mortar cartridges to the Israeli military, Joly said.

However, activists and organizations like Oakvillle Halton 4 Palestine argue that loopholes remain. They claim that the Canadian government can still build export arms to the United States, who then supplies them to Israel.

Additionally, defence trade permits between Canada and Israel are still active.

"We have all witnessed the horrors that Israel has inflicted on Gaza and the West Bank, turning cities to ruins with their relentless bombardment, setting refugee camps — and people — on fire and creating a 'generation of orphans' in the process," Oakville Halton 4 Palestine said. 

"People of conscience are saying enough and are determined to keep their elected officials and implicated companies accountable, while calling out their lies and complicity in the first live-streamed genocide in history."

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been a continually sensitive subject in Oakville politics for over a year. It became notably public after a contentious council meeting back in January 2024 led to a four hour delay and eventual shut down.

Read more here: Oakville Town Council meeting delayed four hours over cancelled Gaza conflict delegations

Oakville News reached out to Collins Aerospace for comment on this story, but did not receive a response.



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