Good morning, everyone. Welcome to defence committee this morning and to the first meeting of our study on Canada's contribution to international peacekeeping.
From Global Affairs we have Mark Gwozdecky, assistant deputy minister, international security and political affairs; we also have Jeff Senior, deputy director, peace operations, stabilization, and conflict policy division. From the Department of Defence we have Lieutenant-General Bowes, commander, Canadian Joint Operations Command; Major-General Meinzinger, director of staff, strategic joint staff—congratulations on your upcoming appointment to chief of the air staff—and Major-General Derek Joyce, director general of international security policy.
We also will have in the back a whole bunch of folks. They're coming from security, but I want to mention them now because we'll be getting into the meeting. We have some folks who will be coming to observe from the parliamentary officers' study program. There are probably 12 or 13 of these from 12 different countries. Maybe on the way out we could recognize them and say hello.
We have a big panel today. What ends up happening is that people like to jump in on individual questions, which is great and fine, but then I start to lose control; it just goes like that.
This is the white flag of graceful dismount. If you see the signal I am showing, it means that you have 30 seconds to sum up and I have to give the time to the next member so that all can get all their questions in. If you would just look at me every once in a while so that I can manage this, I would very much appreciate it.
Having said that, I believe we have two speakers for opening remarks. I'm going to yield the floor to Mark Gwozdecky.
Sir, you have the floor.