Let’s tackle Canada’s terror funding issue

There’s one big “root cause” of terrorism that doesn’t get as much attention as it should in Canada. That’s money. As we embark on another round of conversations about tackling extremism and terrorism in the West — tragically spurred by a series of attacks on the occasion of Ramadan — we have to look at all the options on the table.

Some cynics and liberal naysayers will tell you there’s nothing much that can be done. We just have to learn to live with the occasional terror attack as the new normal. That’s nonsense. There are a number of ways we can address radicalism and terror.

Like by regularly reviewing our integration and screening protocols.

Or by actually charging the known jiihadists walking about freely on Canadian soil, as Postmeida columnist Anthony Furey has shined a light on.

But another element we need to tackle is terror financing.

It’s a completely illegal activity. Yet it’s happening in Canada. And not enough is being done about it.

FINTRAC is the Canadian government centre tasked with analyzing financial transactions for CSIS. Such financing, they explain on their website, “may involve funds raised from legitimate sources, such as personal donations and profits from businesses and charitable organizations, as well as from criminal sources, such as the drug trade, the smuggling of weapons and other goods, fraud, kidnapping and extortion.”

To date, a handful of charities have had their status revoked for connections with terror financing.

One, IRFAN-Canada, was even added to Canada’s list of terror entities in 2014.

“Between 2005 and 2009, IRFAN-Canada transferred approximately $14.6 million worth of resources to various organizations with links to Hamas,” Public Safety Canada’s website explains.

(IRFAN-Canada has launched a recent Federal Court challenge to be taken off the list.)

At first glance, the above makes it look like Canada is indeed being tough on financing. However according to a 2015 report by the standing Senate committee on national security and defence, FINTRAC “identified 683 transactions linked to terrorist financing between 2009 and 2014. No charges have been laid on these grounds.”

Hundreds of transactions? Zero charges? This doesn’t add up at all.

If we’re serious about tackling terror, we have to look more at some of its sources.