I call the meeting to order.
Thank you, Mr. Clerk, and to all of the wonderful support staff who make sure these meetings go as smoothly as possible.
Thank you, committee members, for logging in on time, and for your patience.
I know, Mr. Garrison, you're in a time zone where I wouldn't be awake, so I appreciate your tenacity in making sure that we're doing the things that Canadians expect us to do.
Welcome to the third meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of September 23, 2020. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. The webcast will always show the person who is speaking, instead of the whole room.
I understand that Mr. Zuberi is in person today, so welcome to the committee room, Mr. Zuberi.
To ensure an orderly meeting, I'd like to outline a few rules. Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of the floor, English or French. For members participating in person, proceed as you usually would when the whole committee is there. Just keep in mind to take precautions with health protocols and masking.
Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. For those participating virtually, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. I cannot enough stress the importance of unmuting yourself before you start speaking, because if you don't unmute yourself, we won't be able to hear you. I know that's something we often forget to do, myself included. Those in the room, your microphone will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer.
I remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly to allow time for interpretation. When you are not speaking, please make sure that you are on mute.
With regard to the speaking list and the order of questions, we have canvassed all of the parties, so I know in advance who is speaking at what time, but I will do my best, and the clerk will do his best, and together we'll make sure that everybody gets the equitable time we've agreed to beforehand.
There are a number of things I want to clarify before we get going, and I introduce our witnesses who are here today.
At our last meeting we had talked about the supplementary estimates. I hadn't realized that it would be very short notice for the agencies that are directly involved with the supplementary estimates, and that they would not be able to appear. For example, the Canadian Human Rights Commission is not able to appear today.
We know that the minister is not able to speak to the supplementaries, whereas he is able to speak to the main estimates. I will leave it to the committee to decide if we would like to defer the supplementary estimates to a later time, so that we can hear from the relevant agencies before voting on them, or we can go ahead and vote on them today as a committee.
Just give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down for either way. If you're okay with voting on the supplementaries today, without hearing from the Canadian Human Rights Commission, give me a thumbs up. If you would like to hear from the Human Rights Commission, give me a thumbs down. I see there is consensus to vote on the supplementaries today, without hearing from the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Today we are joined by the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General.
We also have with us Nathalie Drouin, deputy minister of justice and deputy attorney general of Canada; François Daigle, associate deputy minister; and Bill Kroll, chief financial officer and assistant deputy minister.
Welcome to the 2020 justice committee to speak about the main estimates.
Mr. Lametti, you have seven and a half minutes.