I would like to bring this meeting to order. This is meeting number 13 of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. According to Standing Order 108(2), today we are going to be discussing tasers.
We would like to welcome to our committee two witnesses: from the Canadian Police Research Centre, Mr. Steve Palmer, executive director; and from Taser International Inc., Mr. Tom Smith, chairman.
Before we begin, I'd like to ask the media to please excuse themselves from the room.
I would also like to welcome everybody back to the committee. I hope you all had a good break and have come back rested, relaxed, and ready to do lots of work. I think we will have a very interesting study here before us today. So I look forward to this time together.
Just as a word to our witnesses, the usual practice at this committee is to allow you each an opening statement of approximately ten minutes, and then we will move to questions and/or comments, beginning with the official opposition and moving to the other opposition parties and then coming over to the government. Then we'll continue to rotate with our questioning. Questions and answers are usually about seven minutes in the first round for each one, and then we move to five-minute questioning rounds later on.
If you are ready, who would like to go first? I have Mr. Palmer listed first on my program.
Is it okay if you go first, sir? Okay, any time you are ready, you may begin.