CANADA: MEASURES AGAINST WMD PROLIFERATION FINANCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L OTTAWA 003571 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/02/2015 TAGS: PARM PTER PREL EWWT MNUC CA SUBJECT: CANADA: MEASURES AGAINST WMD PROLIFERATION FINANCE AT A STANDSTILL REF: (A) STATE 214780 (B) OTTAWA 3204 (C) STATE 158275 Classified By: POLITICAL M/C BRIAN FLORA. REASON 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (SBU) Post faxed ref (A) points to Foreign Affairs Deputy Director for Nonproliferation, Deborah Paul, and UN, Human Rights and Economic Law officer Catrina Ventura on November ¶28. ¶2. (C) In a subsequent conversation, Ventura acknowledged the importance of fulfilling Canada's obligations under UNSCR ¶1540. She said that current legislation and regulations limited the Canadian government's ability to freeze assets and related actions specifically to terrorist financing and money laundering, and prevented FINTRAC from being able to disclose information on cases involving proliferation of WMD. Ventura's office had considered the need for further regulations related to UNSCR 1540 and thought that expanding the government's ability to halt WMD proliferation financing likely would require new regulations under legislation specifically authorizing compliance with UNSCRs, or amendment to the Anti-Terrorism legislation. ¶3. (C) In a separate conversation with Finance Ministry contacts, emboff was reminded that Canada would be undergoing FATF review next summer and simultaneously assuming the chair of FATF. Officials there have said that the GOC will be anxious to show action in this domain and is likely to be responsive. ¶4. (SBU) COMMENT: Both options for halting WMD proliferators financing would require high-level interagency consultations; no action is likely, however, until after a new government has been elected and sworn in, sometime in the first quarter of 2006. In the case of the Anti-Terrorism legislation, the ongoing mandatory review by a special parliamentary committee that would have enabled amendments, ended with this week's voting down of the government. We understand that a new committee under the next Parliament will have to start the review from scratch, further delaying the prospects for changes to the Anti-Terrorism legislation. Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa WILKINS