Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question, Mr. Chair. I know you're at the beginning of your deliberations on this issue. We will be happy, either in writing or in person, to continue to support the committee in its deliberations. This is a very important file. With respect to terrorist designations and sanctions, we care about this in two particular respects.

Foreign Affairs committee  Very briefly, yes. Wagner is known to have a number of actors within it who have links to extremists and far right ideologies. There's no question about the personal inclinations of some of the members, including its military commander, Utkin, who's a former Russian military officer.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm in regular contact with the U.K. and the U.S. on a wide variety of issues, particularly pertaining to the conduct of the conflict in Ukraine. We are overwhelmingly preoccupied with responding to the effects of—

Foreign Affairs committee  We have discussed Wagner. I can tell the committee that none of those colleagues have raised with me any intention to list Wagner as a terrorist entity.

Foreign Affairs committee  That includes the U.K.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I believe I've answered this question already. The government has the tools it needs to make terrorist designations. Those terrorist designations result from internal and iterative deliberations. I'll finish, Mr. Chair, in a second. The government does not comment publicly on the nature of those ongoing discussions.

Foreign Affairs committee  I am not aware of any Canadian assets or Canadians with assets tied up in Wagner. I would ask if my colleague, Andrew, would like to add to that answer.

Foreign Affairs committee  That is my understanding. I'd like our legal colleagues to add to that.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I believe the Government of Canada has all of the legal tools it requires to list individuals and entities under the terror designation.

Foreign Affairs committee  That is correct. That is the—

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, that is my understanding. All sanctions within states in the European Union are done through the European Union and are then implemented by the members of the European Union.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, I won't comment for the government on what additional measures it may wish to pursue in this domain. From the perspective of the civil service, we have all the tools at our disposal that are required in order to list individuals and entities when needed. I would add that the Americans have a tool in their tool box that we don't have in our tool box, namely, presidential orders.

Foreign Affairs committee  I believe...no. I believe that it is non-ideological as an effort. What we know is there's a close relationship with the President of the Russian Federation and the head of Wagner, but the driver is a profit motive. In the sense that their profit also serves to amplify Russian diplomacy, they're involved, but we see this as a corporate enterprise.

Foreign Affairs committee  Our existing sanctions impose a prohibition on dealings with Wagner already. It is already impermissible for a Canadian company, either here inside the territory of Canada or internationally, to deal with Wagner under our existing sanctions.

Foreign Affairs committee  I'll turn to my colleague from the legal department on that, but I'll say Wagner is Prigozhin's military entity. It's his military company. He has numerous other companies named different things for different purposes. Wagner refers specifically to this military operation.