In this episode of Habibti Please, Nashwa Lina Khan joins Local 514 for a deep-dive conversation unpacking the recent visit of the Swedish royal family to Montréal, Ottawa, and so-called Canada, a visit largely framed by mainstream media as ceremonial, benign, and cultural. This episode argues otherwise.
What begins as a seemingly innocuous royal tour reveals a much deeper story about arms deals, NATO expansion, Canada’s growing role in the military-industrial complex, and how cities like Montréal are quietly being positioned as hubs fo r weapons manufacturing and military AI.
Royal visits are not Neutral. The Swedish king and queen were not simply visiting for diplomacy or cultural exchange. Their presence functioned as high-level corporate lobbying on behalf of Sweden’s arms industry, specifically the push to sell Saab Gripen fighter jets to Canada amid tensions with the United States and a reassessment of F-35 procurement.
Sweden’s carefully cultivated global image as progressive, neutral, humanitarian collapses under closer scrutiny. The episode traces Saab’s history of corruption allegations across South Africa, Brazil, Central Europe, and beyond, raising urgent questions about why Canada would deepen military partnerships with a company repeatedly implicated in bribery and misconduct. “Humanitarian arms exporters” do not and will never exist.
Far from being peripheral, Montréal is already deeply embedded in global weapons supply chains. Montreal is indeed a weapons hub. From aerospace manufacturing to AI research institutes, public funds and public institutions are increasingly tied to military production often without public debate or consent. Montreal is already a weapons hub, you can read more from Arms Embargo Now here. The Swedish delegation’s visit to Montréal’s AI research institutions highlights how “innovation” rhetoric is used to normalize military tech development. Civilian research spaces are quietly absorbed into war-oriented futures under the banner of jobs and competitiveness.
The promise of “10,000 high-paying jobs” is interrogated head-on. The episode asks: Why are weapons framed as the only viable economic growth strategy? What would job creation look like if public money were invested in housing, climate resilience, care work, or food security instead? Why jobs implicated in war instead of justice?
While politicians insist Canada is not directly exporting weapons to conflict zones, the episode lays out how Canadian-made components feed into global arms supply chains including those linked to Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, and beyond. Canada is and has been quietly complicit.
This conversation invites listeners to move beyond surface-level nationalism and media complacency. It challenges the idea that Canada or Sweden can position itself as peace-loving while expanding war infrastructure. It also asks Montréalers to reflect on what kind of city we are being shaped into, and who benefits from that transformation. or clear, evidence-based reporting on how Canadian-made weapons and components continue to circulate globally despite official denials, spend time with this investigation from Arms Embargo Now: https://armsembargonow.ca/.
As this episode reminds us, militarized economies are life-taking economies and they require permanent war to sustain themselves.
Complicity Is Not a Mystery: Canada, Arms, and the Architecture of Denial
Canada often describes itself as a peacekeeping nation, restrained, principled, and guided by “benevolant” international law. Yet the evidence tells a different story. Over and over, Canadian-made weapons, components, and technologies surface in sites of mass violence: Gaza, Sudan, Yemen. Each time, the response follows a familiar pattern. Officials insist exports are frozen. Ministers emphasize complexity. Responsibility is displaced onto allies, intermediaries, or technical classifications.
What this bibliography reveals is not a failure of information, but an architecture of denial.
Civil society reports show how Canadian arms complicit in violence globaly reach places through U.S. supply chains. Investigative journalism documents contracts approved after internal reviews flagged extensive human rights violations. Parliamentary interventions warn that Canada is “on notice” of potential complicity under international law. Faith institutions and humanitarian organizations call for embargoes and sanctions. Still, the machinery continues.
Complicity here is not accidental. It is bureaucratic. It lives in export permits, Crown corporations,Canadian ports, risk-mitigation language, and procurement contracts framed as “industrial benefits.” It is reinforced through diplomacy, royal visits, trade missions, defence partnerships that normalize militarism as innovation and economic growth.
Looking at Sudan makes it impossible to dismiss as rooted on a single conflict. Canadian rifles appear in the hands of militias accused of massacres. Canadian exports pass through the UAE despite clear diversion risks. The same loopholes, the same rationales, the same denials reappear.
What changes when we read these sources together is scale. The question is no longer whether Canada knows. The record shows it does. The question is whether Canada is willing to act when accountability threatens profit, alliances, or national myth.
This archive exists to interrupt that myth and to insist that responsibility does not end at the border, the permit, or the press release.
Canada, Arms, and Complicity: A Starter Reading List
This short list is designed for people who want to learn about the issue issue or need a clear entry point. Each item attempts to answer a different “first question.”
1. Arms Embargo Now (2025)
Exposing Canadian Military Exports to Israelhttps://armsembargonow.ca/report/
Why start here:This is the clearest overview of what Canada is exporting, how it moves (especially via the U.S.), and why official claims of a “freeze” don’t match the evidence.
2. CBC News (2025)
Report suggests arms still flow from Canada to Israel despite denialshttps://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/arms-ammunition-shipments-israel-canada-1.7596091
Why start here:Shows how mainstream journalism confirms what civil society has documented and where government messaging breaks down.
3. Project Ploughshares (2025)
Canada under contract to supply the IDF with artillery propellanthttps://ploughshares.ca/canada-under-contract-to-supply-the-idf-with-artillery-propellant/
Why start here:Introduces the idea of indirect complicity and how Canadian goods flow through U.S. contracts and Crown corporations.
4. The Maple (2025)
How Canada’s purchases of Israeli weapons fuel genocidehttps://www.readthemaple.com/how-canadas-purchases-of-israeli-weapons-fuel-genocide/
Why start here:Shifts the conversation from exports to imports and how Canada financially sustains Israel’s military industry.
5. Yellowhead Institute (2023)
Canada’s Role in the Colonization of Palestinehttps://yellowheadinstitute.org/2023/candas-role-in-colonization-palestine/
Why start here:Provides historical grounding on how Canada’s relationship to Palestine did not begin in 2023.
6. Anglican Church of Canada (2025)
General Synod Resolution C012: Arms Embargo on Israelhttps://gs2025.anglican.ca/resolutions/c012/
Why start here:This is no longer a fringe position, institutions are publicly calling for an embargo.
7. Local 514 (2025)
The Swedish royal couple in Montréal to sell warplanes? (video of this episode)
Why start here:Connects arms exports to diplomacy, monarchy, and the normalization of militarism.
PART II — DEEP-DIVE APPENDIX
A. Export Loopholes & State Risk Assessments
* Project Ploughshares & Amnesty International Canada —“No Credible Evidence”: Canada’s flawed analysis of arms exports to Saudi Arabiahttps://ploughshares.ca/special-report-no-credible-evidence-canadas-flawed-analysis-of-arms-exports-to-saudi-arabia/
* The Maple —Government export agency noted 99 Israeli crimes but OK’d arms salehttps://www.readthemaple.com/government-export-agency-noted-99-israeli-crimes-but-okd-arms-sale/
* Middle East Monitor —Canada reviewing report on U.S. loophole sending military parts to Israelhttps://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20251122-canada-reviewing-report-on-us-loophole-sending-its-military-parts-to-israel-despite-freeze/
B. Civilian Infrastructure
* The Rover —Are passengers on flights from Montréal sitting above shipments of bullets?https://therover.ca/gaza-are-passengers-on-flights-from-montreal-sitting-above-shipments-of-bullets-for-israels-war/
C. Sudan, the UAE, and Global Spillover
* CBC News —Sudanese fighters accused of massacres use Canadian-made rifleshttps://www.cbc.ca/news/world/sudan-rsf-massacres-canadian-rifles-sterling-cross-9.6969856
* Truthout —As Canadian weapons enter Sudan, activists decry Canada’s deepening UAE tieshttps://truthout.org/articles/as-canadian-weapons-enter-sudan-activists-decry-canadas-deepening-uae-ties/
* CJPME —Canada must halt arms exports to the UAEhttps://www.cjpme.org/pr_2025_10_30_sudan
D. Parliamentary & Institutional Accountability
* Senate of Canada — Kim Pate (2025)Senate intervention on Gaza and risk of Canadian complicityhttps://sencanada.ca/en/senators/pate-kim/interventions/671800/51
* Oxfam Canada —3 actions to limit Canada’s complicity in genocidehttps://www.oxfam.ca/story/3-actions-to-limit-canadas-complicity-in-genocide/
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