Thanks very much.
Welcome to our witnesses. You have, among all of you, such valuable experience in the fields you have studied and seen, based on your experiences, just like us members of Parliament around the table. We all come from different and diverse backgrounds.
I want to go back to that question. I'm going to let you, Mr. Gaffield, start off with that.
I want to take it a step further. MP Tochor was trying to ask all of these research questions. Dear Lord, I have several degrees and I do not pretend to know....
There's so much research out there. My children, nieces and nephews, who come from a different generation than mine, obviously, all have such varied backgrounds, capabilities and research. A number of them have gone on to graduate with Ph.D.s of different varieties. I'm sure you see so much out there, so I want to take you back to his question and have you elaborate.
I also want to then have you talk about the independence of research. Regarding the capstone the government announced a few months ago, they want independence for it, including from political interference. I will ask you again to elaborate, based on all of that. It's where Ms. McPherson was coming from, but I'd like an even longer explanation. It's incumbent on us to start with that here, this afternoon.
Mr. Gaffield, it's over to you.