The land border crossing between Canada and the United States of America at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle. CTED/Mattias Sundholm
Acting on behalf of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee, its Executive Directorate (CTED) conducted a country assessment visit to Canada from 6 to 10 February 2023. The visit concluded the Committee’s hybrid assessment of Canada, following a virtual component held in May 2021 due to travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The assessment covered all relevant Security Council resolutions, including 1373 (2001), 2178 (2014), and 2396 (2017), and included engagement with the Government of Canada across several federal, provincial, and municipal departments and agencies in Montréal, Ottawa, and Toronto.
During the visit, the delegation — which was led by the CTED Chief of Section for the Americas and Asia Pacific and included also other CTED experts, as well as representatives of the 1267 Sanctions Committee Monitoring Team, the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) — conducted on-site visits to the Montréal-Trudeau International Airport, the Port of Montréal, and to the land border crossing between Canada and the United States at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle. As an integral part of the official assessment, the delegation also held a roundtable discussion with representatives of a wide range of civil society organizations and academia in Canada, hosted by the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy in Toronto.
Thematic areas covered during the visit included counter-terrorism legislation, criminal justice, and international cooperation in criminal matters; anti-money-laundering (AML) / countering the financing of terrorism (CFT); law enforcement; border management, including aviation and maritime security; and countering violent extremism (CVE) conducive to terrorism. In accordance with the practice followed for the Committee’s previous visits, the discussions also included human rights aspects of Canada’s counter-terrorism measures, as well as its incorporation of the gender dimension and the roles of women in countering terrorism and CVE.
Photos from the visit can be accessed through CTED’s Flickr account, available .