Good afternoon and welcome, dear colleagues.
This is meeting number 15 of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development of Thursday, February 28, 2008. Today we will have a briefing on the crisis in Sudan and investments.
In our first hour we will hear witnesses. From the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, we have Ken Sunquist, assistant deputy minister, global operations, and chief trade commissioner; Scott Proudfoot, director Sudan task force; and Donica Pottie, director, human security policy division. From the Department of Foreign Affairs, we have David Angell, director general, Africa bureau; and from CIDA ,we have Louise Clément, acting director general, southern and eastern Africa directorate.
We welcome you.
In our second hour we're going to hear from a group on the Sudan issue as well.
I remind the committee that our intentions today are to have a very brief committee business meeting at the close of our meeting. This is to ratify and pass the steering committee report, or at least bring it forward to the committee for its consideration.
Mr. Sunquist will be making a statement, and then we will go into our first round.
Welcome, Mr. Sunquist.