This diverse panel incorporated the thoughts of the financial industry, academic research, legal practice, and the federal government in a discussion on sanctions. Chaired by Roland Legault, a representative from the legal bureau at DFAIT, the panelists discussed the effectiveness of sanctions while proposing some areas for improvement.

Representing the financial industry on the panel, Keith McCormick discussed the banking industries role in helping to prevent UN sanctioned dictators, human rights violators, and other criminal regimes from accessing finances. Both he and fellow panelist Alan Kashdan discussed how, while fitting sanctions within the common practice of the banking industry has been new, the industry has been quite successful in obtaining compliance.

On the other hand Mr. Kashdan mentioned that, outside of the financial industry, many companies have been failing with sanction compliance and increased education on these matters is the key to resolving the problem. Beside aiding UN sanctioned governments, violation of sanction compliance carries with it a costly penalty.

Finally, Dr. Andrea Charron discussed how the UN Security Council applies sanctions differently in different conflict contexts. As well, the evolution of application of UN sanctions has been quite remarkable. Both of these facts means that UN sanctions are expected to do more and are therefore applied to address all manner of crises in the world. This also means that it is even more important that the unintended consequences of sanctions are monitored.