It has to be clearly understood that the fight against terrorist financing has in a way come to be inseparable from the fight against money laundering. They start from the same premise, that money is the sinew of war. With that view, we feel that, by attacking their funds, we can disrupt some terrorist groups just as we can disrupt some criminal groups. The question is finding out how important money is for those groups.
Clearly, the Islamic State is a specific armed organization. In a case like that, we can imagine, money is important. However, there are cases in Canada where the importance of cash flow may be questioned. How expensive is it for a single person to go and plant a bomb, or do this, or do that? The idea that we can put an end to terrorism, to terrorist activities, in Canada in particular, just by drying up finances is open to question.
However, in terms of a classic criminal investigation, having access to financial information is appropriate in completing the investigation. That may be the actual issue.
We must not put too high a value on what can be done in the fight against terrorism in Canada, but we must identify what the issues are for us, what kind of political violence we could have in Canada and how we can best use the financial aspect in a criminal context, rather than thinking that we are going to prevent an attack with that type of approach or by drying up financial resources.