Thank you, Chair, and thank you to our witnesses.
I will start off by mentioning how we ended up with the committee briefing. The opposition wanted to make sure that we had some parliamentary oversight so Canadians could be aware of what we're doing in Mali. To that effect, we had asked the government, and it complied, to have some parliamentary oversight through committee. Hopefully, we'll have a debate as well. I just wanted to note that.
Just as a polite criticism, we had been concerned about the information sharing. Since that concern was raised, we have had briefings, and we have this committee briefing today.
Mr. Chair, I'm going to start on the diplomatic side. I'll start maybe with a wider lens. I think, Ms. Buck, you and others have mentioned that we're not dealing just with a concern around Mali, per se, that in fact, this is a regional concern. We certainly heard that from Mr. Fowler, for instance. He was quite clear about the concern he had when he was a captive about the plans afoot for what we'll call the extremists to gain a foothold in places like Mali and certainly beyond. Obviously, you would see this as not just a Mali concern, that this is a regional concern.