I call the meeting to order.
Good afternoon, colleagues. This is meeting number 6 of the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan, on Wednesday, April 21, 2010.
Again I will remind everyone that we are televised, so you may want to adjust your cellphone and your BlackBerry so they aren't ringing in the middle of today's testimony.
Towards the end of today's meeting we are going to have time for committee business; the first portion will be public and we may consider having two minutes of in camera after that. But for certain the first portion of the meeting will be public.
We're going to continue our study on the transfer of Afghan detainees. We have a panel of witnesses this afternoon.
I'm pleased to welcome, from the Embassy of Canada, Ron Hoffmann, Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand.
Welcome to our committee.
From the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, we have Arif Lalani, director general, policy planning bureau, and David Sproule, deputy legal adviser and director general of the department's legal affairs bureau.
Welcome.
I understand that each of you will have a few comments to make. Then we'll go into a couple of rounds of questioning. We thank you for being here today.
I believe Mr. Sproule is going to start this afternoon.
We look forward to your comments.