Joshua Key, a young husband and father from a conservative background in Oklahoma, enlisted in the United States Army in 2002, to get training as a welder and lift his family out of poverty. Although he believed that he would not be deployed, a year later, the U.S. military invaded Iraq. The war Key found himself participating in was not the campaign against terrorists and evildoers he had expected. Instead, he saw Iraqi civilians beaten and shot and killed or maimed for little or no provocation and participated in frequent raids on homes he was told were harbouring terrorists. After seven months in Iraq, Key went home on leave, and knew he could not return.

Way back in September 2004, the story broke that the Canadian engineering and construction firm SNC-Lavalin would be manufacturing 300-500 million bullets for the U.S. military through its subsidiary SNC-TEC.

As Chris Spannos put it at the time: "For Canada, long in denial about its active participation in the U.S. war on terror, the SNC Technologies contract should highlight the fact that Canada has not only provided previous military and diplomatic support for the war on terror, but is now literally, without doubt, providing the ammunition to kill Iraqis."