Canadian Funding of Terrorism

"IRFAN-Canada has knowingly financed Hamas, a listed terrorist entity, for many years. The well-intentioned and charitable Canadians who sought to support humanitarian relief through this organization deserve better."
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney

"[Hamas is a] radical Islamist-nationalist terrorist organization that emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987[responsible for several hundred terrorist attacks]."
Public Safety Canada website

"[The federal government has been] making speculative and non-evidence based inferences [about IRFAN's links to Hamas]."
"In a post-9/11 context, no allegation can be more harmful to the well-being of a Canadian-based international humanitarian relief organization than casting aspersions suggesting links to terrorism."
"[IRFAN's] charitable work for predominantly Muslim beneficiaries within the constantly shifting terrain in the conflict-zone of the Middle East does not make (it) a political tool or arm of Hamas.
Court filing, IRFAN lawyers

"There was ample evidence to conclude that IRFAN provided funds to organizations that were part of Hamas' social infrastructure. IRFAN repeatedly misrepresented to the public the nature of its work and its beneficiaries."
Court filing, federal lawyers

www.theaustralian.com

Hamas militants talk during a press conference in Gaza City to mark the ceasefire agreement reached with Israel. Source: AP

Canada's Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams have gone into overdrive, searching the head office of the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy Canada, located in Mississauga, Ontario. They also searched a private residence in Montreal. "We are determined to stop Canadian funds from getting in the hands of terrorist groups", RCMP Assistant Commissioner James Malizia explained.

An extensive review of intelligence information inclusive of information that the organization transferred about $14.6-million to groups associated with Hamas, between 2005 and 2009 led to the decision to add IRFAN as a terrorist entity under the Criminal Code. The RCMP had sized "stored media, money and other records" in the wake of a search warrant served in Ontario and Quebec, part of the Project Sapphire operation.

"We continue to work diligently with our partners to investigate and disrupt organizations from misusing charitable donations to fund terrorist activity." Working in Muslim countries, IRFAN-Canada lost its charitable status in 2011 when Canada Revenue Agency identified it as an "integral part" of an international fundraising enterprise supporting Hamas, an offshoot group of the larger global Muslim Brotherhood.

But according to IRFAN's lawyer, Yavar Hameed, the established link between Hamas and the charitable group is "tenuous". No factual evidence has so far been provided by the government to satisfy their contention that funding donated to the charity was funnelled to terrorist activities, as far as he is concerned. The process, he stated, lacks procedural fairness since organizations are not permitted to respond to the charges laid against them.

In their brief to court, IRFAN's lawyers describe the non-profit Canadian relief organization as providing support to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, proffering nutritional, health, psychological and what they identify as basic-needs support in conflict areas there. Insisting that the charitable group has been subjected to "speculative" links to terrorism. Bookkeeping irregularities cited by CRA auditors are those routinely committed by other charities, they claim.

Several months back Liberal leader Justin Trudeau agreed to speak to an Islamic conference in Toronto, sponsored in part by IRFAN-Canada. The controversy that engendered led the relief group to withdraw as a "diamond sponsor" of the event. The decision to brand IRFAN as a terrorist entity, according to Martin Rudner, professor emeritus at Carleton University specializing in terrorism, is "consistent with a global approach to monitor charitable contributions that may contribute to terrorism".

It also represents a very much required due diligence effort on the part of Canada's security and intelligence agencies. Hezbollah, as an example, relies on charities it has connections with to support the families of suicide-bombers. The funding of terrorist activities globally through charities is well enough recognized. Within Canada, donations made to Sri Lankan charitable groups aided the terrorist activities of the Tamil Tigers.