Dear colleagues,
I'm going to begin this meeting right now and address an issue while our witnesses take their seats, and then I'll do introductions, because we have to deal with an administrative matter.
We are the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development. Today is May 29, 2014, and this is our 30th meeting.
We are looking into the human rights situation in Vietnam. We have some witnesses, who I'll introduce in a moment. We'll be having a video presentation as well, as part of this presentation. We're televised, of course.
I have to start by making an apology to everybody. There will apparently be a vote in the House of Commons that will interrupt our proceedings here. The rules require me to suspend as soon as the bells start ringing, unless there is unanimous consent of the committee to continue onwards. Therefore, I propose, and you can accept this or reject it at your discretion, that when the bells start ringing—and they are 30-minute bells—that we continue sitting until we have some period left—I'm going to suggest five minutes—at which point I will terminate what's happening. I'll probably start giving you a heads-up at 10 minutes so anybody who has to leave can do so, but we're not very far away.
Is that acceptable?
Mr. Sweet.