Thank you so much, Chair.
The special bulletin that FINTRAC produced on IMVE stated that “IMVE threat actors have raised funds through...crowdfunding...and accepting donations.” Our Canadian Security Intelligence Service has divided it into roughly four categories: xenophobic violence, anti-authoritarian violence, gender-driven violence and other grievance-driven violence.
Of course, our Criminal Code has a definition of terrorism, which is “an act...committed...in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause...with the intention of intimidating the public”. The activities recognized as criminal within this context can include significant “property damage” and “interference...or disruption of an essential service, facility or system”, to which I think any casual observer looking at Ottawa right now could probably make a link.
What I'm trying to dig into here is the relationship between the payment service providers—for example, Stripe and PayPal—the crowdfunding organization, and then the financial entity to which the funds are eventually distributed. For example, for the payment service providers, do they have information when they're receiving donations? Do they understand why the donations are coming in? Do they understand for what purpose they're coming in? Does the crowdfunding site have that link with the service provider?