Good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to call this meeting to order.
We are here to begin our study on the human rights situation regarding natural resource extraction within Latin America. This is a topic that we've addressed on a number of occasions in isolation, but it's a topic brought to us by our colleague Cheryl Hardcastle that we're going to be looking at.
Today we're going to be hearing from individuals from the Department of Foreign Affairs. We have with us Duane McMullen, director general, trade commissioner service, operations, who will lead off, and Jeffrey Davidson, extractive sector corporate social responsibility counsellor. If we can, we'll do 10 minutes for each of you gentlemen.
I know there are other members, and I'll introduce them.
Martin Benjamin is the director general, North American strategy bureau.
Sylvia Cesaratto is the director, South America, bilateral relations division, and Tarik Khan is the director general, Central America and Caribbean bureau.
Mr. McMullen, if we can, we'll have you lead off for 10 minutes, and then we'll hear from Mr. Davidson. Then we'll open it up to questions from the members of the subcommittee. Please go ahead.