Good afternoon, colleagues.
This is the tenth meeting of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development, on Monday, March 23, 2009. We are continuing our committee's study of key elements of Canadian foreign policy.
Today we will turn our attention to Sri Lanka.
In our first hour, our witnesses are Susan Johnson, director general of international operations for the Canadian Red Cross, and, also from the Canadian Red Cross, Faisal Mahboob, program manager of the Pakistan and Sri Lanka international operation.
Welcome.
From the Association of Sri Lankan Graduates of Canada, we have Yoga Arulnamby, president, and Raj Thavaratnasingham, executive committee member.
Welcome.
I see by the nodding of your head that I didn't mess up the name too much. If I did, I apologize, sir.
Our committee provides time for each witness to make a short opening statement. Then we'll go into the first round of questioning. Each party will have seven minutes for questions and answers.
By way of information for our committee, if it would be all right, we would like to reserve about five or ten minutes for committee business. Our subcommittee has a budget that they've presented, just to bring witnesses to their committee, so we'll want to deal with that.
Welcome, everyone. I will begin by asking Ms. Johnson to make her presentation.