Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I also thank the minister for joining us. I would like to ask her to give brief replies to all my questions, given that I have a number of questions to ask.
If, unfortunately, the answers are not very short, I will have to cut her off, and I don't want to do that.
My first question for you, Minister, is this. When we had government officials before the committee in November, they mistakenly said that no application for mifepristone had been made, but in fact it had been submitted to Health Canada for over a year.
The drug is approved in 57 countries, including the U.S.A. The medical community even calls it the gold standard of care.
Considering that safe access to abortion is a fundamental right in Canada, could the minister confirm that Health Canada's approval process for mifepristone will be fully independent and be based on science alone?