Thank you very much.
I welcome the witnesses who are participating today in this very important study. They have touched on a number of topics in their opening statements, so I won't be able to cover them all in just six minutes.
Ms. Dench, in a response from the Minister of Immigration to a report produced following a study by this committee into the selection of foreign students and the inequities that existed between students from Africa and those from elsewhere, the minister bluntly admitted that there was racism — that's the word he used — within IRCC and that it could affect whether or not a person got a study permit, depending on where they came from.
In your opinion, does racism within IRCC affect the processing times of cases, as this is what we are interested in in our study today?