Thank you, Mr. Chair, and honourable members.
The Canadian Bar Association is pleased to appear before this committee today on this important piece of legislation. The Canadian Bar Association is a voluntary association of 37,000 lawyers across Canada whose primary objectives include improvement of the law and improvement of the administration of justice. It's with that optic that the members of our immigration law section have analyzed Bill C-31 and make the comments that we have submitted to you in writing and will speak about today.
I'm pleased that Mr. Edelmann is here with me today. He is a member of the refugee bar and of the immigration law section, and I will give to him the bulk of the time.