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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ingersoll, Ont., on Dec. 5.Nicole Osborne/The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Ottawa is working to stop exports that help Moscow wage war after an investigation found Canadian-made parts in drones being used by Russia to attack Ukraine.

He said the federal government wants to ensure no Canadian goods end up in the hands of the Russian military or its allies, such as Iran.

“We are obviously extremely concerned about those reports,” Mr. Trudeau told reporters Monday. “Even as Canada is producing extraordinary technology innovations here for around the world, we do not want to participate in Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine or Iran’s contributions to that.”

As The Globe and Mail reported this week, antenna components from Ottawa-based manufacturer Tallysman Wireless have been found in Iranian-made Shahed 136 drones, which form part of Russia’s arsenal in its invasion of Ukraine. A project called Trap Aggressor by a Kyiv-based think tank, Statewatch, recently identified the Canadian parts.

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Russia launched a heavy military assault on Ukraine in February. The top soldier in the United States, General Mark Milley, last month estimated that Russia’s attack has killed about 40,000 Ukrainian civilians, and displaced 15 million to 30 million. He also estimated that the conflict has killed or wounded 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers as well as 100,000 Russian soldiers.

Tallysman told The Globe it does not ship products to Iran or Russia, or to distributors that it knows sell to those countries, and that it has been working with Canada Border Services Agency on the matter. The company’s president, Gyles Panther, said he believes that the antenna parts in question were likely diverted to Iran through distributors using “fake company fronts” to hide their intention.

Mr. Panther said the company has “become painfully aware” that some of its components are being “misused in sophisticated military guidance systems” in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“It is sometimes assumed that we are somehow complicit in this usage. We absolutely are not. Tallysman is 100-per-cent committed to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.”

Tallysman is one of many Western tech companies whose products – in many cases relatively simple electronic components – have ended up in weapons manufactured by Russia and its allies.

While some of this Western technology is subject to export controls, much, like the Tallysman antenna components in question, are not. That’s because simple components are not normally deemed sensitive equipment by Western governments looking to stem the flow of military goods to unfriendly states.

Mr. Trudeau said the government will investigate how goods are getting to Iran.

“We are going to be following up with this company, that is fully co-operating, to try and figure out exactly how items that were not were supposed to get into the hands of anyone like the Iranian government actually ended up there,” he said.

“We are working to solve that and ensure that it doesn’t happen again in the future.”

Canada had a full trade embargo against Iran until Mr. Trudeau’s government rolled it back in 2016, lawyer John Boscariol said. Canada has since levied sanctions against Iranian officials and government entities, but broader trade is still possible with the country.

Mr. Boscariol, head of McCarthy Tétrault’s trade and investment group, said Canada could draw up a list of goods and technologies – items it believes could be used in weapons – that it could bar companies from supplying to Iran and Russia.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress urged the country’s manufacturers to take extra care to ensure their exported products are not going into military goods that could help Russia attack Ukraine.

“That Canadian-made parts were found in drones being used by Russia’s war machine, which is murdering Ukrainians every day, is very troubling,” said Ihor Michalchyshyn, chief executive officer of the advocacy group, which represents Canadians of Ukrainian origin.

“We call on the Canadian authorities to investigate how this happened in order to prevent a recurrence, and we call on all Canadian business to exercise due diligence to ensure that their products do not end up in the hands of these murderous regimes.”

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