The National Post

By Ed Moragn

Ed Morgan is a law professor at the University of Toronto. He was an expert witness for the plaintiffs in Ungar v. Palestinian Authority and Bouzari v. Islamic Republic of Iran, and testified before the Senate in 2008 in Support of S-225 – C-CAT’s Proposed Bill Allowing Suits Against Terror Sponsors.

Re: Cutting Terror’s Cash Flow, July 8, 2006.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is to be commended for providing a Canadian home base for an agency that co-ordinates the actions of financial intelligence units from around the world. Canada’s experience in the sophisticated regulation of financial institutions makes this an ideal national contribution to the international fight against terror financing.

At the same time, and for the same reasons, the government and all opposition parties should support Bill C-394, recently introduced into the House by Conservative MP Nina Grewal, which would allow terror victims access to the Canadian courts for compensation. The new legislation would permit those Canadians most directly harmed by terrorism to freeze and seize the funds that are the life blood of international terrorist organizations. It would also deny the immunity until now enjoyed by state sponsors of terror.

Bill C-394 is modelled on Canada’s Competition Act, which allows private legal actions to supplement public regulation in curtailing offenders. Together with Minister Flaherty’s important initiatives, it makes for the kind of public-private coordination that would best enforce the legal right of all Canadians to free themselves of the terrorist violence that attacks all of our liberties.