I call the meeting to order.
This is the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. We are studying systemic racism and religious discrimination, as a result of M-103, which had been forwarded to us. This committee, however, decided that the way to focus on this would be to look at the broader issue of systemic racism and religious discrimination. All the parties agreed to do this, and so we set our themes based on that.
I want to welcome our witnesses who are here today. We have Sherif Emil, director of pediatric general and thoracic surgery at the Montreal Children's Hospital; and then from the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada, we have Laurence Worthen, executive director.
I will begin with Dr. Emil.