Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Minister, for coming today to appear before the committee to talk about this very significant piece of legislation.
We know that the former Conservative government introduced a similar bill just days before the House rose prior to an election, which I guess was at best just bad timing, as it would have been nearly impossible to get this through the House and the Senate in five or six days.
However, I do note that there are two major differences between that piece of legislation and the one that has been presented to the House and is now before committee. They actually differ on two points. One is the Gladue principle and the other is defender identity and gender expression components.
Can you comment on how these two were introduced? Was it done through the consultative process that you've been undertaking over the last few years? How important do you see these in the piece of legislation?