Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We thought that changing the order of the witnesses slightly would give a better flow of information for the members of the committee.
The Canadian Bar Association is very pleased to appear before this committee today to speak about the appointment process for the Immigration and Refugee Board. The Canadian Bar Association is a national association representing over 37,000 lawyers across Canada with a mandate to work toward improvement in the law and improvement in the administration of justice. We have a long history of involvement in and commenting on the particulars of both judicial appointments and appointments to administrative tribunals generally about those processes and specifically about appointments to the IRB.
I am joined today by Mr. Stephen Green, who is on the executive of our national citizenship and immigration law section. He will be referring to the letter we sent to the committee, which I understand you have in front of you, and I will ask Mr. Green to make some brief opening remarks.