Revenue Canada's counter-terrorism abilities limited

Kim Bolan , CanWest News Service

Published: Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Officials from the Canada Revenue Agency say they are doing what they can to fight terrorist financing across the country.

But they told the Air India inquiry that they are limited to their specific mandate governing Canada's 83,000 registered charities.

The trio of senior officials testifying in Ottawa Wednesday agreed with the assessment of Air India Commissioner John Major that they are not "the first line of defence" against terrorism in Canada.

Donna Walsh said that in the last five years, the CRA has refused to give 14 organizations applying for charitable tax status numbers because of their suspected links to terrorism.

"These are cases where we had a concern about some element of support for terrorism," Walsh explained. "In most cases . . .we will have raised that."

Lawyer Richard Quance, who represents families of the Air India victims, asked Walsh specifically about groups that had floats in a recent Surrey Sikh parade glorifying Air India mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar and other assassins.

One of the floats covered with photos of the so-called martyrs was sponsored by Sikh Vision, a registered non-profit society in B.C. that does not have a charitable tax number.

"There was a non-profit organization that had a float in that parade which was supportive of certain terrorists including Mr. Parmar," Quance explained. "If that had been a charity, would that have been a use of resources to support terrorists that would have fallen within the definition of where you could act?"

Walsh said she couldn't really speculate.

And Major said the question was based on hypothetical upon hypothetical.

"What we know, Mr. Quance, is that there was a float and it was offensive to a number of people because of the beatification of some of the known terrorists including Mr. Parmar," Major said.

Walsh confirmed that not a single "security certificate" has been issued against a registered charity since the Canada Revenue Agency got the power to do so after the Sept. 11, 2001 U.S. terrorist attacks.

"It is a reserve power," she said of the certificates.

Sometimes other measures are taken using lesser powers within the act to deal with suspect charities, she said.

"To this point we have had success with dealing with matters without having to resort to that," Walsh said.

The CRA presentation before Major, a retired Supreme Court of Canada judge, was short on specifics.

Anecdotal examples of cases in which charitable numbers were denied were void of names of suspect causes or terrorist affiliations.

In one case, Walsh said one Canada-based organization dubbed "A" applied for charitable status and was to provide funds to a second organization, identified only as "B", in a foreign country.

The CRA ruled "that controls were inadequate to prevent A's resources from falling into the hands of terrorists or terrorist-allied organizations via organization B, due to the latter's relationship with a listed terrorist entity."

Walsh told Quance that the information about the unnamed group was passed on to law enforcement agencies.

But she said that until a few months ago, her agency was prevented from sharing data with the RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or FinTRAC, the government agency charged with gathering intelligence on terrorist financing and money-laundering.

"We are now permitted to do so," Walsh said.

FinTRAC's last annual report said $256 million was identified in a 12-month period as being suspected terrorist financing - a portion of which was linked to charities or non-profit organizations.

The inquiry into the June 1985 Air India bombing plot that claimed 331 lives is looking at the extent of terrorism financing in Canada and what is being done about the problem.

But Major does not have the mandate to specifically probe the individuals or agencies that financed the unprecedented act of terrorism.

Vancouver Sun

© CanWest News Service 2007

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