Thank you very much, Mr. Opitz. Before I do that I want to again thank you for your service. You are sitting at this committee table with tremendous practical and operational experience. You've been deployed, so your international perspective is also greatly appreciated and valued.
You are absolutely right. The Royal Canadian Navy have done outstanding work. They really bring the shine to our country when it comes to our contributions internationally, particularly when it comes to counter-narcotics. The Toronto in particular, as you mentioned, is part of a Combined Task Force 150, a multinational maritime task force that is tasked specifically with combatting terrorism in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Indian Ocean, and the Gulf of Oman, yet they are there as part of a coalition partnership promoting security, stability, and prosperity in an area that clearly requires support. It's certainly one of the world's most important shipping routes.
Very recently, just this month, HMCS Toronto successfully disrupted her third narcotics shipment. In fact, it was the third seizure in six weeks in the Indian Ocean. The sailors and the captain of HMCS Toronto are to be commended for their seizure and recovery of tonnes of narcotics that were eventually destroyed.
As you mentioned, sir, the seizure will deter and deny terrorists the funding that is often at the root of these narcotics shipments. It's also an important fact that this keeps hard-core drugs off the streets of our cities in Canada, in North America, and around the world. That is an invaluable fact and a benefit of the work that HMCS Toronto and previous Canadian ships have been involved in.
This important work is valued by our allies. It is demonstrative of Canada's desire to support security internationally. As I mentioned, in terms of the amount of traffic, and I mean legitimate traffic moving on the water coming to North America, keeping these shipping lines open is certainly vital. We just celebrated the anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. We know that the important work done during the Battle of the Atlantic was very much about keeping the supply lanes open to Europe.
This is in the same vein, in keeping with that same tradition of contribution by the Canadian Navy to ensure the free flow and passage of goods between Canada and our allies, and Canada and our trading partners.