Thank you, Chair.
And thank you to our guests for taking the time today to help us with our project.
I was taken by both your presentations. I might just start with Mr. Taylor because I too was happy to hear in Mr. Obama's historic speech the mention of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. It's interesting, you mentioned that it was something that had been an issue right after the fall of the wall and that a lot of really good work was done. And I was glad to see, as you also mentioned, the bipartisan article of people like Mr. Kissinger and Mr. Shultz joining arms with Mr. Nunn.
I must say to you that if you had told me in 1986 that would ever happen, I would have said that you should check the water you're drinking.
So I'm glad you mentioned it, because I want to go further with you on this, to where Canada can play a role. You intimated just a second ago that we can't do everything, but that there are a couple of key things we can do. Are you aware of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol that was put forward recently? It basically is a venture whereby about a year ago there was a discussion about having a target date set of being nuclear free by 2020 and that there would be a convention to that effect signed by 2010. I would note that the name of the protocol, which obviously came out of Japan, was actually something that had been done through mayors globally around the world. And I know a little bit about that from when my mother was mayor and had taken this issue on, along with mayors from other cities around the world.
But what I was going to then venture into was, should Canada get involved in that? And I'm thinking of our experience on other protocols like the land mine treaty and of course the cluster bomb treaty.