Protestors gathered at the Roshel Inc. plant in Brampton on March 12, 2026. (Photo: World Beyond War Canada)
Dozens of activists gathered at the Roshel Inc. plant in Brampton this week to call out the “sickening and scandalous” sale of armoured vehicles to the U.S., and urged workers to blow the whistle about the company’s role in arming conflicts.
Organized by activist group World Beyond War Canada, over 50 protesters descended on the Roshel plant at 255 Biscayne Cres. in Brampton, marking the second demonstration held at the facility since 2024.
Roshel has previously come under fire from anti-war activists and politicians for its now-halted export of more than 30 armoured vehicles to the Israel Defence Forces, and the sale of 20 Senator vehicles to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) amid escalating violence and clashes with the public on American streets.
And while the last protest was a blockade of the plant where the company makes armoured vehicles, Thursday’s gathering around 4 p.m. was aimed at connecting with workers at shift-change while “highlighting Roshel’s complicity” in global conflicts, one attendee told INsauga.com after the demonstration.
“We engaged in discussion with the workers leaving their shift to highlight the company’s complicity in equipping the IDF and ICE with armoured vehicles and let them know how they could become a whistleblower and confidentially share information about Roshel’s role in arming conflicts,” they said, adding that “many workers took flyers and engaged in discussion.”
People who appeared to be management came and took photos and video of the crowd, and Peel Regional Police attended the protest. A police spokesperson told INsauga.com that “there were no arrests made and the protest was peaceful in nature.”
Roshel CEO Roman Shimanov was also there and was greeted with chants of “shame” by the crowd, and was seen speaking with police before leaving the protest, World Beyond War says.
Roshel did not respond to requests for comment by publication.
“It is disgusting for Roshel to profit off of the fascist terror ICE is unleashing across the US,” World Beyond War Canada organizer Rachel Small said to INsauga.com. “And there is absolutely no justification for Canada to have allowed a Canadian weapons company to send a rush order of armoured vehicles to ICE in the past month, but this is exactly how Canada’s arms exports to the U.S. work.”
Small said seeing Roshel’s Senator vehicles being used in Minneapolis was “sickening and scandalous” following the death of Alex Pretti, a nurse at a veteran’s hospital who was shot dead by ICE agents in January while trying to provide aid to another protester.
“And there is absolutely no justification for Canada to have allowed a Canadian weapons company to send a rush order of armoured vehicles to ICE in the past month but this is exactly how Canada’s arms exports to the U.S. work,” she said.
And while World Beyond War Canada applauded the City of Brampton for signing on to the Apartheid-Free Network’s Community Pledge in principle this week, the group lamented the failure of Bill C-233 this week (No More Loopholes Act) – a bill designed to stop Canada’s “ongoing arming of genocide and war crimes.”
Bill C-233 would have required Canadian military exports to the U.S. to undergo the same permit requirements and human-rights risk assessments applied to exports to other countries.
Small called the failed vote on the No More Loopholes Act “a litmus test” that the Carney government failed.
“They picked the side of militarism and U.S. weapons companies. The side of Trump and Netanyahu. The side of genocide and war crimes,” she said.
Protestors gathered at the Roshel Inc. plant in Brampton on March 12, 2026. (Photo: World Beyond War Canada)
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