We'll begin our committee hearing this morning as we continue our study of refugee issues.
Today we will be dealing with the backlog in the Federal Court. To help us understand the problem of backlogs and how best to deal with that problem, we've invited witnesses to come along this morning. We have witnesses from the Federal Court of Canada, who will be here from now until about 10 a.m., after which we have more witnesses coming in.
I welcome you to our committee meeting this morning. As you are aware, I think you have opening remarks that you will make, and generally these run about ten minutes or so, after which we open our meeting to committee members, who might want to ask questions or have a discussion with you about your statement and what have you.
I will pass it over to you, gentlemen. You can introduce yourselves, and we'll begin our committee meeting. There is an interpretation device down below, and it might be better for hearing purposes if you plug it in. I noticed that you were straining a little bit to hear me, and my flu doesn't help any. Maybe you could use your little earpiece and you will hear me a lot better.
I'll just pass it over to you to make your opening statement.
Thank you.