Canada’s financial intelligence agency says it is actively helping police and spies follow the money flowing into the coffers of Islamic extremists fighting overseas.
The Ottawa-based Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, known as FinTRAC, passed along information to investigators as part of the government’s effort to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, says centre director Gerald Cossette.
Many Canadians have never heard of the centre, which keeps a relatively low profile compared with other national security agencies.
However, financial intelligence has become a “key component” of terrorism investigations by the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Cossette said during a recent talk hosted by Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs.