Crown corp. alerted minister's office about U.S. artillery ammunition sale connected to Israel

The CEO of the canadian river commercial message corp (CCC), which oversees international arms transfers, wrote a letter of the alphabet to st. Dominic LeBlanc on March 20, 2025.

"As a trusted industry partner, General Dynamics Ordnance [and] Tactical Systems has been the exclusive supplier of propellant for U.S. Department of Defence howitzer ammunition," the CEO, Bobby Kwon, wrote in the letter.

U.S. Records show the propellant was being used in support of Ukraine and Israel.

It's the first publicly available documented instance the CCC directly raised the issue of shipments to the U.S. To an elected official.

LeBlanc is no longer international trade minister, but maintains responsibility for Canada-U.S. Trade as part of his cabinet portfolio.

Kwon explained the CCC was on the cusp of renewing a contract between the General Dynamics plant in Valleyfield, Que., and the U.S. Department of Defence for the manufacture and sale of two orders of propellant, a type of smokeless powder that pushes an artillery cannon's projectile out.

He also outlined how a previous agreement from 2023 with the U.S. Already existed to expand propellant production capacity at General Dynamics. 

A U.S. Government website shows an agreement from 2023 signed with the CCC for propellant, mentioning the "effort in support of Ukraine and Israel." The site says $628.5 million US has been spent to date.

More than a year prior to Kwon writing the letter, in January 2024, the federal government had declared it was no longer allowing the shipment of lethal arms directly to Israel. 

However, concerns that Canadian-manufactured arms and ammunition were going to Israel after first being sent to the U.S. Were raised by activist groups in a detailed report last fall. 

The U.S. Is largely exempt from Canada's arms-control regime, which the NDP calls a "loophole" it is seeking to shut with a private member's bill that currently has almost no support from other political parties.

"CCC maintains a rigorous risk assessment and due diligence framework that governs all contracts to ensure alignment with government of Canada policies," Kwon wrote.

"CCC is proceeding with heightened prudence, including full consultation with Global Affairs Canada."

"Given the sensitive nature of this transaction, CCC is exercising heightened due diligence to ensure alignment with Canada's foreign policy commitments," he also wrote, before inviting LeBlanc to follow up if he has questions.

The exact sums of the renewed components of the contract are redacted, but in the letter Kwon estimated the total contract is worth nearly $1 billion US. 

LeBlanc has been a point person for both Prime Minister Mark Carney and his predecessor Justin Trudeau in trade negotiations with the U.S. Over the course of the last year, involved in on-and-off conversations with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

It is not clear if LeBlanc has spoken to the U.S. About the prospect of ammunition sales going to a third party.

Global Affairs Canada did say CCC's 55-page human-rights assessment "is an internal document to CCC, prepared for internal deliberations which includes commercially confidential, privileged information and advice, and is not shared outside of CCC."

That document was initially written in December 2024 and updated on March 24, 2025, just days after LeBlanc received the letter from Kwon. 

The assessment referred to a series of United Nations reports and news stories about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as well as court documents of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court.

Its conclusions were redacted in the copies released to media outlets. 

Though it is not clear if LeBlanc has read the letter addressed to him, the paper trail released through the access to information request shows Global Affairs officials did see it.

In one email, Kwon forwarded the letter to Rob Stewart, the deputy minister of international trade, told him the letter has "been thoroughly reviewed" with Stewart's own team and asked him to send it to LeBLanc after Stewart reviewed it himself.

In a subsequent email back to Kwon, David Hutchison, who is a director general for export information at Global Affairs Canada, informed him that the letter "has been transmitted." 

Senior reporter

---

---