Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good evening, gentlemen. Thank you for being here.
A few moments ago, I reported on an article published in the Journal de Montréal on January 29, 2024, in which we learned that, as early as 2010, you were warning the government of an increasingly aggressive attitude on the part of China, particularly regarding intelligence activities. What we've found is that the government has been slow to pick up the message, so much so that the minister was telling us a few moments ago that, until very recently, employees were essentially relied upon to self-declare in order to get a clear idea of the “pedigree” of the links they had with other institutions.
I don't mean to put you on the spot, but do you feel that the government should have put in place background check mechanisms sooner for people working in a high-level, tier 4 lab like Winnipeg?