Good afternoon, everyone.
I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number 21 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade.
Today's meeting is webcast and is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2021.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108 and the motion adopted by the committee on October 23, 2020, the committee will proceed with its study of the investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms.
I would like to welcome our terrific group of witnesses we have here today, a very high-level panel, to provide us with sufficient information on the ISDS and for the debate that will follow.
I could take all afternoon to list all of the contributions of this group of witnesses. I don't want to take away that time from their presentations and from our committee, so I'm going to just welcome the Honourable Yves Fortier from Cabinet Yves Fortier; Barry Appleton, professor at New York Law School; Charles-Emmanuel Côté, professor at Université Laval; Armand de Mestral, emeritus professor of law at McGill University; and Patrick Leblond, associate professor at the University of Ottawa.
Welcome, and thank you to all of you for sharing your expertise and your time with us today.
Mr. Fortier, you have the floor, please.