Kelsey Gallagher, a researcher with the arms monitoring group Project Ploughshares, said the admission comes as no surprise, since there is no codified definition of “non-lethal” goods in Canadian military export regulations. He noted that all military goods enable lethal operations in some way.

“Given the level of humanitarian harm being witnessed in Gaza and now the wider Middle East, I think it’s entirely inappropriate for the Canadian government to politicize messaging on this issue in such a way that it misleads the public,” he explained.

“If the intention was to mislead Canadians regarding the threat posed by Canada’s continued arming of Israel, then I think that goal was achieved.”