WATCH: Speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council Wednesday chaired by US President Barack Obama, Prime Minister Harper delivered an anti-ISIS message and laid out the steps Canada has taken to address the threat of homegrown extremism.
ISIS is now officially listed as terrorist organization under Canada’s Criminal Code.
Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney announced the update to the government’s list of terrorist entities on Tuesday, not long before Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed the U.S. asked Canada for more help in fighting ISIS —the militant group also referred to as the Islamic State group.
READ MORE: French hostage decapitated by ISIS-allied extremists
A statement from Public Safety Canada noted ISIS was previously listed as Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was added to the roster of terrorist groups in August 2012.
Al-Qaeda disavowed ISIS after the group broke away from the terrorist network in Feb. 2014
“The despicable actions of the Islamic State meet the legal threshold set out in the Criminal Code, which requires the existence of reasonable grounds to believe that an entity has knowingly participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity or is knowingly acting on behalf of, at the direction of, or in association with such an entity,” the statement from Public Safety read.
READ MORE: Obama calls for dismantling Islamic State ‘network of death’
According to a statement from Blaney in December, this designation “facilitates the prosecution of perpetrators and supporters of terrorism, as well as countering terrorist financing.”
There are currently 53 organizations listed as terrorist entities, including al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, Hamas, Hezbollah, as well as Boko Haram and the Caucus Emirate which were added to the list in Dec. 2013.
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