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Canada Revenue can’t track money Canadian charities receive from foreign donors for religious and educational work, despite suspicions that millions may ultimately end up going to fund Islamist terrorist recruiting and propaganda.

It will be two, possibly three years, before any such “granular” details are available, Cathy Hawara, a Canada Revenue Agency director-general, told a Senate committee Monday.

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Sen. Daniel Lang, chair of the national security and defence committee, was incredulous.

“Two or three years?!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, unfortunately,” replied Hawara.

Lang: “We’ve been told privately by some people within the intelligence service that there’s millions of dollars coming into this country. It’s a very legitimate question for the public and all agencies within the government to find out what’s going on. I would ask that we try to speed it up.”

It has been widely suspected for years that wealthy Gulf Arabs from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar have been bankrolling conservative Wahhabi and Salafist institutions and teachings in western countries. The strict and puritanical interpretations of Islam have no direct links to terrorism. Still, security experts say the conservative ideologies offer fertile ground for individuals contemplating jihad.