‘No justification’ for ICE purchase of Brampton-made armoured vehicles, says anti-war group

Calls are rising to scrap the sale of armoured vehicles made in Brampton that are being used on U.S. streets by ICE agents.

“There is no way anybody can look at what ICE is doing in the U.S. right now and think this is an acceptable place for Canadian weapons to be used,” World Beyond War Canada organizer Rachel Small told INsauga.com.

“It’s just absolutely horrific,” Small says of the Brampton-made Senator armoured vehicles now being seen used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid growing tensions and violence against citizens in the U.S.

World Beyond War Canada is calling for the government to scrap the sale of 20 Senator vehicles made in Brampton by Roshel Inc. to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for some $10 million, as reported late last year.

Procurement documents said the company can complete the order within 30 days, but requests for comment on the status of the sale have not been returned by Roshel or ICE.

Global Affairs Canada declined to comment on the sale, and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand has previously said the federal government was not “contacted regarding any permits for this transaction.”

Absolutely sickening to see Canadian company Roshel’s Senator armoured vehicles being used in ICE’s deadly attacks on Minneapolis today. The Canadian government should never have allowed this rush order to go through, but this is exactly how Canada’s arm export regime functions. pic.twitter.com/DBrn5DxOCS

— World BEYOND War Canada (@WBWCanada) January 24, 2026

Tensions between citizens and federal immigration officers continued to rise in Minneapolis after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent. A mother of three, Good was shot multiple times and killed by an ICE officer in a shooting on Jan. 7.

Alex Pretti, a nurse at a veteran’s hospital, was shot dead by ICE agents on Saturday while trying to provide aid to another protester.

Both were U.S.-born citizens.

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Rochel says its Senator APC can support a wide range of functions, including as an armoured personnel carrier, mobile command and control units, law enforcement vehicles, and medical evacuation vehicles.

It can also be equipped with mine-resistant technology that can withstand up to a 6 kg explosive activated under any wheel and beneath the centre of the chassis.

Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles has joined World Beyond War’s call to cancel the Roshel deal, saying this week that ICE “has been unleashing lawlessness in the streets and killing civilians in broad daylight.”

British Columbia’s attorney general also says business leaders in the province need to consider whether their decisions could contribute to an immigration crackdown in the United States that she and others are watching “in horror.”

But Ontario Premier Doug Ford took a different stance when the sale was announced, calling the deal between Roshel and ICE “fantastic.”

“We’ll take orders anywhere in the world, and thank goodness the Americans are ordering it from us,” Ford said.

He distanced himself from the sale on Tuesday, saying he doesn’t direct companies to sell military vehicles to the U.S.

Stiles fired back at Ford, saying Ontario needs to “cancel the ICE contract.”

“We need to stop compromising our values,” she said in a post on social media.

Small called Canada’s recent pledge to increase its military budget ” an enormous gift to Trump,” and a commitment to “a whole foreign policy that’s based on warmongering in lockstep with the U.S.”

“We see a completely different vision for Canada, and we think that if there was a time to separate genuine investment in our economy and the genuine threats to our security – to separate those from the self-interested goals of Trump and the weapons industry – we think this is that time,” Small told INsauga.com.

World Beyond War Canada, which uses nonviolent activism to promote an end to war and demilitarize Canada, has previously blockaded the Roshel plant in Brampton over the now-halted export of more than 30 armoured vehicles to Israel.

Roshel has sent military vehicles to Ukraine for use against the invading Russian forces, and hired refugees fleeing the conflict to work in its 140,000-square-foot Brampton facility.

Small tells INsauga.com she has met with hundreds of workers in the arms industry who’ve said they would rather use their technical skills to make anything other than weapons.

“We’re not against vehicles and planes, we just don’t think that where Canada should be trying to build expertise is in weapons of war,” Small said.