Project Shadow: Ending the Online Exploitation of Children

“we were able to identify a number of financial indicators that… really allowed us to identify potential perpetrators of this crime,” Barry MacKillop, Fintrac. “an area being under reported and investigated in Canada and globally,” Stuart Davis, Scotiabank. Kieran talks with Barry MacKillop, deputy director at The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (Fintrac) and Stuart Davis, Scotiabank’s global head of financial crimes risk management, about “Project Shadow,” a public-private partnership (PPP) that combats the online sexual exploitation of children in all it’s forms. Co-lead by Scotiabank and the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and with the support of Fintrac, Project Shadow seeks to raise awareness, identify red flags, and increase reporting of suspicious transactions associated with the exploitation of children. Formally launched this month, Project Shadow is the fifth Canadian PPP created since 2016, when “Project Protect” was launched to fight human trafficking.