Thank you, Madam Chair.
I would like to thank the honourable minister, her deputy minister, the chief of the defence staff and the director of staff for being with us today.
Minister Anand, your name, “Anand”, means bliss and happiness. It's always blissful and happy to work with you on compassionate issues such as Afghanistan. Not only do you work really hard to address those issues, but you work very passionately.
On this, Minister, you appeared at the Special Committee on Afghanistan. During your appearance, you spoke about the effects of the Canadian Armed Forces being pulled out of Afghanistan in 2014 and the impact that had on the evacuation in 2021. You mentioned that, with all things considered, we worked with our allies very efficiently, although we did not have quite the same type of presence on the ground as some of our allies.
Could you please speak about the operation and the threats to our personnel and assets on the ground and how the armed forces were able to move efficiently, with all things considered?