I call this meeting to order.
This is the 33rd meeting of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, convened to do a study on the national security framework of Canada.
I want to welcome both our invited guests, who are here to give us testimony and to help us with our study, as well as members of the public who have joined us today.
I want to remind you that there are two meetings today. The meeting from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. is an example of a meeting we would be doing in Ottawa; however, we are on the road this week. Then from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. we are having an open-microphone meeting, allowing any member of the public who would like to make a statement to the committee on the issues defined within the study we are doing on national security framework, to come and make their opinions known. You're all welcome to come back, if you haven't had enough of us by then.
I would remind everyone that this is an extension of Parliament. We are here today as parliamentarians. Even though we are on the road, this is a bit of Parliament coming to you.
We work in both official languages of Canada, English and French, so you can put in your earpieces to listen to the interpretation.
We welcome you as members of the public to this meeting.
As I said, we are engaged in a study on the national security framework. We had meetings in Vancouver on Monday, and in Calgary yesterday. The committee is very bright and awake, but we were up at 3:30 this morning in order to be on an airplane quite early to get here, in Toronto, so you'll probably see us drinking water and coffee a lot as we continue.
We welcome our guests.
I'll start with Ron Atkey, adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, and also teaching at Ryerson University, as our first witness, for 10 minutes.