Welcome to this meeting of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
For those of you on video, hello. My name is Anthony Housefather. I'm the chair of the committee. I'll be introducing you to people as we take their questions, going forward, but you can rest assured that you have all of the Liberal members, the Conservative members, the NDP members here with you, and we're all very anxious to hear your testimony. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Joining us today in the room we have one witness, Shanaaz Gokool, who is the chief executive officer of Dying With Dignity Canada.
Welcome.
On video, we have three groups. We have from London, Ontario the Christian Legal Fellowship represented by Derek Ross, the executive director, and Jonathan Sikkema, associate counsel.
Welcome.
From Toronto we have the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience, represented by Cardinal Thomas Collins, who is the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Toronto, and Laurence Worthen, who is the executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada.
Welcome.
Finally, we have the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, represented by Cara Zwibel, who is the director of the fundamental freedoms program.
Welcome.
Given that we are going to go to the video first, we want to make sure we take it in time. You all have eight minutes to deliver your remarks—we have four groups each with eight minutes—following which you will receive questions from all of the members of the panel, rotating between six minutes to the Conservatives, six to the Liberal, six to the NDP, six to the Liberals, and you can go back and forth with the questions.
We will start with the Christian Legal Fellowship.
Mr. Ross and Mr. Sikkema, please go ahead.