Thank you, Angelina.
Mr. Chair and members, effectively, we're removing some of the largest Russian banks from SWIFT. It has choked off any transactions. Most of the Canadian banks no longer have direct access to Russia in terms of facilitating payments. It's had a good effect in the sense that it has denied some of the largest banks, like VEB, VTB and Sberbank access to western capital, but it has had unintended consequences for ordinary Canadians, and that's part of the reason for a lot of the permit applications to Global Affairs Canada.
Ordinary Canadians are no longer able to easily send money—like remittances for child support, for example—to Russia, or to receive pension payments. Or, in the case of hockey players who are playing in North America, if their employer happens to be owned by a sanctioned entity, their payroll has been cut off. That's one of the results that has occurred.
One other point that I'll also make with respect to Mr. Silver's remarks is that although we are very supportive of the Magnitsky sanctions and we agree that greater coordination is important, most of the large Canadian banks have international operations. For us, for example, we have to comply with sanctions requirements in the United States, in the EU and in the U.K. and other jurisdictions. Although it's not written into our law here in Canada, we also honour other jurisdictions in which we operate.