For this service, terrorism is still the number one priority in terms of threats to the security of Canada. Within that threat, radicalization, or what is known as homegrown terrorism, is the number one priority. As we've seen with the Toronto 18, it is something concrete that does exist here in Canada.
It's important to understand that radicalization is not an issue a security intelligence service or law enforcement can deal with themselves. First of all, we have to understand the phenomenon and what's driving young people to become radicalized. So a project like this is crucial. In our public report, we mentioned that our analysis branch did a study on radicalization. We're working with our international partners, trying to better understand what factors are driving young people to adopt a radical ideology and the willingness to use violence to promote that ideology.
In terms of the broader terrorism threat, the al-Qaeda ideology is still the number one threat facing not only Canada but also a number of our partners. The fact that al-Qaeda—and I'll qualify, the al-Qaeda core in Afghanistan, Pakistan—has been weakened, and that Osama bin Laden was killed, doesn't mean that the ideology is dead. On the contrary. What we're seeing more now are groups affiliated with al-Qaeda or who are adopting their ideology and representing more of a threat. We can certainly think of what's happening in Mali now with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; what's happening in Syria with the emergence of groups like al-Nusra, who are directly linked to al-Qaeda; what happened in Libya, and the list goes on and on. So that is what the challenge is for the future: those groups adopting the al-Qaeda ideology and promoting that violent jihad ideology.