Anti-Terrorism and Charity Law Bulletin No. 40,
The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance (the “Committee”) released its report entitled Terrorist Financing in Canada and Abroad: Needed Federal Actions (the “Report”) on June 18, 2015. The Report contains 15 recommendations that are designed to increase the effectiveness of Canada’s anti–money laundering and anti–terrorist financing regime, as well as contribute to global efforts to combat terrorist financing. In its discussion of the issues, the Committee noted the low level of terrorist financing that has been detected in Canada compared to other countries, but the Committee was careful to note that limited detection and prosecution of terrorist financing in Canada does not mean that there is a low risk of terrorist financing in Canada or that Canadian entities are not being used to raise or transfer terrorism-related funds abroad. As such, the Committee indicated that more could be done to detect terrorist financing and increase investigative capacity, which could lead to more prosecutions with these expanded capabilities. The following Anti-terrorism and Charity Law Alert discusses the consultation process the Committee conducted in preparation for the Report, for which Carters Professional Corporation was invited to take part, and includes a discussion of which recommendations affecting charities and not-for-profits were adopted by the Committee and those recommendations made by Carters that have yet to be adopted by the Committee.