SNC Lavalin, which supplies bullets to US occupation forces in Iraq, received a visit on Remembrance Day.

Employees of the Montreal (Quebec, Canada) company SNC-Lavalin were surprised by dozens of new posters on bathroom walls throughout the company's headquarters yesterday morning. Showing scenes of torture, death and extreme brutality experienced in occupied Iraq since the invasion last spring, the explicit photos were captioned, "Your job? My life!", and "SNC munitions killing Iraqis". Photos of Abu Ghraib torture recalled Remembrance Day: "We will never forget". (In North America, 11 November is a day to commemorate the dead from the Second World War.)

Employees of the Montreal (Quebec, Canada) company SNC-Lavalin were surprised by dozens of new posters on bathroom walls throughout the company's headquarters yesterday morning. Showing scenes of torture, death and extreme brutality experienced in occupied Iraq since the invasion last spring, the explicit photos were captioned, "Your job? My life!", and "SNC munitions killing Iraqis". Photos of Abu Ghraib torture recalled Remembrance Day: "We will never forget". (In North America, 11 November is a day to commemorate the dead from the Second World War.)

In May 2004, SNC-Lavalin, through its subsidiary SNC Technologies, clinched a supply contract with the US military for small calibre bullets. Working with a consortium of military companies led by General Dynamics, the contract was specifically linked to the needs of occupation forces in Iraq. It is estimated that between 300 and 500 million additional bullets are needed per year, and will be for at least the next five years. The amount of ammunition being used by the US for killing people in Iraq has been so high that domestic suppliers can no longer keep up.

SNC Technologies to the rescue! The SNC-Lavalin subsidiary, based in Le Gardeur, is the largest supplier of munition to the Canadian army.

SNC TEC describes itself as a "first class manufacturer of ammunition and related defense services to serve the needs of armed forces". Its revenues of CDN$266 million in 2003, its expertise in the area of training munition and non-toxic environmentally friendly bullets (yes!) and the popularity of its products with police, military and occupation forces not ony in Iraq but also in Afghanistan, Canada and elsewhere made it well-positioned it to be a winner in the contest to supply US occupation forces. The company can take pride in its role in killing more than 100,000 Iraqis since May 2003.

The employees of 455 Rene-Levesque West, the headquarters of SNC, were perhaps not aware of the involvements or even the existence of SNC Technologies. But the "civil" wing of this darling of the Quebec business world has itself done more than its part in creating conditions favourable
to the rapid and unceasing sale of SNC TEC's deadly wares.

SNC-Lavalin, under a variety of names such as Defence Programs Inc or SNC ProFac, provides other support to Canada's military projects: in Afghanistan, for example, it provides all logisitical support to Canadian troops maintaining the occupation and built the military base "Camp Julien".

SNC is also an ardent promoter of privatisation programmes here in Quebec and around the world. Notably, its President and Executive Director, Jacques Lamarre, sits on the Quebec Bosses Union, as well as the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) - two organisations which lobby aggressively for free movement of (their) profits, the oppression of immigrants and refugees through a
further militarisation of borders and the further economic and military integration of Canada and the United States. When Paul Martin's government announced last January that Canadian companies could bid on Iraq "reconstruction"
contracts, the company spokesperson, Gillian MacCormack, expressed the company's delight, "We believe that the fact that Canadian companies now have this opportunity is marvellous, and we are certainly interested." At SNC, this "war on terrorism" increases the sales of weapons which are used to colonise and promote a devastating re-engineering of all aspects of the environment, health and vital infrastrucure.

The occupations of Iraq, and of Afghanistan, don't start and end with SNC. But SNC well illustrates Canada's hypocritical and hidden involvement in these occupations and in the war of terror: very concrete.

SNC's walls were covered with these photos in order to make visible the reality of SNC-Lavalin and to confront the employees with this reality. They are always able to turn away from the protests often organised outside the US consulate, which is housed in the SNC building. But this unmasking action, so close to home, forces a reaction. It is important to continue with such actions against the institutions which - from 1492 to 2004 - have created and profit from the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Turtle Island (indigenous North America).

As for the employees of SNC-Lavalin, as major shareholders in the company, we suggest that they sell their shares in the company.