Thank you, Mr. Chair, and honourable members.
Mr. Veeman and I will be sharing the seven minutes.
I'd like to start by thanking you for the opportunity to appear on these amendments to the Citizenship Act today.
The Canadian Bar Association is a national association. We are more than 36,000 lawyers across Canada, more than 1,000 of whom are members of the immigration law section, whose primary objectives include improvement of the law and the administration of justice. That is the optic by which we have reviewed the bill and make our comments to you today.
The submission you have before you was prepared and approved as a public statement by members of the immigration law section, and reviewed by the legislation and law reform committee. I would like to pass to Mr. Veeman to make the remainder of our remarks.