Written by Chris Murray & Stewart Webb
The DefenceReport team was in full force at this year’s CANSEC, which was widely agreed to be the biggest and most successful thus far. Our Editor, Stewart Webb, Associate Editor, Chris Murray, and kit reviewer, Jesse Laidlaw, were all in attendance…many beers and much food were consumed, as well as a rather delicious Ontario whisky, Pike Creek. It was also the first time that Chris and Stewart met face to face after working together for over a decade through DefenceReport.
In the coming months, DefenceReport will reap the benefits of the trip. Watch for articles and reports, as well as industry features (including factory tours) from some key standouts, including emerging companies here in Canada.
That is all to come in due time. This is to offer a general report on what DefenceReport encountered and observed on the ground.
Ottawa did a decent job of keeping the protesters off the new LRT service. Still, the first day did include something of a kerfuffle out front and delegates were forced to walk in the last 2km down a country road with dirt shoulders and no sidewalks on a classically hot and humid Ottawa day…it was a pretty embarrassing way for Canada to welcome the biggest names in the industry. One might suggest that the Ottawa Police Service invest a little more effort in proactive preventive measures in the future to ensure the route is secure and protesters are kept at a distance.
It roughly takes two weeks for the vendors and the EY Centre to set up for CANSEC. There was marked growth in the number of booths compared to the previous year. A new booth space had to be tented off, and a few vendors were set up outside. For instance, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu-based Cambli
was one of those vendors outside, combating Thursday’s Ottawa deluge. Clearly, CANSEC has outgrown the existing site (the EY Centre), and some action will need to be taken to address this. However, it does demonstrate the success and expansion of the innovations that Canadian businesses are achieving.
In terms of the industry showing. The big boys with the flashy gear certainly stand out…hard not to get excited walking past a row of Rochel vehicles, or Cambli. GDLS naturally brought a LAV 6, and their booth even featured a set of stairs where you could have a meeting on top of and survey the CANSEC from above.
However, it was the small booths of home-grown companies representing Canada’s strategic industrial capacity that were really inspiring. For example, the boys at AI Tactical Solutions and their soft ballistic plates, which float, as well as their very impressive IR camouflage. Everyone is on the same page…that page is a sense of urgency, a deep passionate desire to serve, and an overwhelming frustration with the Government’s inability to awake to the reality they face or meaningfully engage with these industries…not to mention reform the whole bloody system and approach actually to get this moving.
It seems the solution is there waiting for us, and it really is just about the Government actually caring to engage with it in a meaningful way. Many of the big Ottawa players were (in our view) naïvely overly optimistic that this was a sign that it’s all going to be okay because Canada is going to get to 2% of GDP on defence (at some point).
Still, if you scratch a bit deeper and talk to the people doing the work instead of talking about it, the opinion is pretty unanimous that:
- That won’t be enough money, and
- It’s not just about money, it’s about knowing what to do with it.
There are a lot of small, unseen pieces that go into running the show, and it’s far more complicated than just buying a frigate and creating some Canadian jobs in the process, regardless of questionable results.
Other impressions include a strong fixation on technology, specifically items that can be held, often large and flashy. There were only two small arms manufacturers represented. There were clearly core military capacity gaps in the showings, with almost no sign of heavy guns, mobile artillery, and only a few shoulder-mounted systems. To be fair, there were some very cool things we needed, like sonobuoys, that we came across.
There was a serious lack of ‘‘thinking’ and thought leadership present. No one was talking about intelligence or how to think about the world. Other than DefRep itself, there were no companies offering analysis, reporting, and services aimed at contextualizing global events and connecting unseen threats. The intelligence we saw was entirely limited to software designed to sort out the noise of the battle space and provide clear pictures of what’s happening, which is terrific; no slight is intended. However, Chris Murray, coming from an academic lens, was deeply troubled by the lack of concern about education and people. After all, this equipment is going to require people, smart people. We will also need to be thoughtful and informed about our advisories, the regions we operate in, and the best way to utilize our resources.
The amount of walking and the thoughtful policy discussions that we had at CANSEC left us knackered. We enjoyed a couple of CANSEC lagers, brewed by a local craft beer company for the event, and there were many small gifts available. For instance, Stewart was at the event last year, but now the entire DefRep team are kitted out with Davie Shipyard trucker hats. Davie Shipyards had small teddy bears last year, which made a great gift for Stewart’s daughter. Jesse has a Cambli Rubik’s Cube, but we’re not entirely sure he knows how to use it.
Yes, with thousands in attendance, it is natural that there were long line-ups at the washrooms. This year, the addition of food trucks offering their services definitely eased demand for those who did not attend the CANSEC lunch or wanted a quick coffee. CANSEC celebrated another successful event, and the amount of work required to put it on is evident. We appauled their continuing efforts and dedication and those staff members of the EY Centre.
We look forward to sharing the products and the stories of the manufacturers with whom we had discussions. However, we are ultimately looking forward to CANSEC 2026 and with that, we would like to extend our thanks to the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries.
Photos taken by DefRep staff at CANSEC 2024/2025