Thank you, Chair.
I'd like to thank all the witnesses for being here this evening. I appreciate your making the sacrifices to come on short notice. I know it's tough to rearrange your schedules to do something like this, but the work you're doing tonight is very important. I appreciate the time and the effort you're giving.
I'm going to start off with the Council of Canadians. Mr. Naidoo, I appreciate your honesty in stating that you were a candidate. I respect that, and I know you and I will probably agree to disagree on a lot of things.
In fact, your association is planning to hold a demonstration outside my office on Saturday. If I were able to be back there on Saturday, I would open up the doors and offer them a coffee and I'd sit and listen to them, and again probably agree to disagree, but I would try to listen to their views and appreciate or respect that.
The only thing I'm concerned about is can you assure me that the demonstration will be peaceful and that nobody will be hurt?