Thank you very much.
First, thank you for appearing here today. We know it's a difficult issue, and we thank you for the time you've put into this. I know that some of you, as you've admitted, if you had known how much it was going to engage you on such a difficult issue you may have thought twice about taking the assignment.
Mr. Matas, I want to pick up on something you said earlier. First, your reputation is well known here in issues of human rights. I see that since 1987 you've been the director of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. You were nominated recently for a Nobel Peace Prize. And of course you're a former member of the board, someone who brings a lot of experience in international human rights and experience with Rights and Democracy to the table.
In your remarks you referred to the original mandate for R and D. If I can summarize what you said, it was set up to provide grants to the third world NGOs to aid in promoting objectives of the organization—R and D—and that third world organizations delivering the services would therefore be well removed from the influence of the Canadian government but working on projects that were advancing the objectives of Rights and Democracy around the world.
But it seems to me that you said the mandate has somehow changed. Rights and Democracy is now creating programs and then using NGOs as contractors to deliver services, and the perception of NGOs around the world has changed since the original mandate. I wonder if you would care to comment or expand on that, because it may be germane to what's happening.