I'm going to call this meeting to order. This is the 18th meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. I do apologize for the delay, but we now have everyone connected.
We have two witnesses we will be hearing from. We have Ms. Serena Fleites, and we have Mr. Michael Bowe from the law firm of Brown Rudnick. Mr. Bowe is Serena's counsel, but he has testimony that he'll be sharing this morning as well.
For our two witnesses who have joined us, in terms of housekeeping, I want to remind you that there is direct translation. It's available at the bottom of your screen. If you click on the interpretation, you can select English. There may be some French questions that you'll receive later on. I just wanted to make a note of that.
Serena, thank you so much for being willing to come to our committee and tell your story. We want to ensure that you answer the questions that you want. We want to be flexible today for both of our witnesses. We very much appreciate your willingness to come.
We'll begin by giving you an opportunity to provide us your opening statements. Then we'll have some questions for you. Again, we'll make an effort to be flexible in terms of ensuring that you're able to answer the questions in a way that you feel most comfortable.
Ms. Fleites, perhaps you could begin with your opening statement, and then we'll turn to Mr. Bowe, if that order suits you.